Phosphorescence of the Void
by Useless Dopant
Summary: The Void reaches and touches many places, places that would do better not involved in the gaze of the Indifferent Eye. A duty bound Child of the Stars, with heart eclipsed by the indifferent moon, finds himself in a world in upheaval. Yearning to return home to face a New War, does his self righteous heart burn still?
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

**So… this is the first fanfic after a long time of lurking on this site and forgetting to login and follow my favorite stories (sorry). Anyways, I would like fair, constructive criticism in the reviews and without further ado, enjoy. **

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

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Phosphorescence of the Void Ch. 1

His head pounded. His eyes struggled to open, feeling more like some weight had tied itself to both flaps of flesh, keeping them shut. The stranger felt himself drift. Something put its proverbial foot down, refusing to let itself fall back into the sea of unconsciousness. Distantly he heard the sound of machinery and even more faintly, the sound of murmuring. He felt sore all over. A peculiar feeling of something being pumped into him from his arms was felt. "_I need to get up. I HAD to get up. If not for my own well-being, for everyone else. For the one thing I could stand for in this bleak world. For the other Tenno." _

_"Yes, whatever was happening to me, couldn't happen. Whether it be Corpus or Grineer, they were not getting anything out of me." _Despite how his head pounded like a war drum, he forced himself to focus deep and hard. Reaching out, the stranger touched a nebulous swirl of energy deep within.

* * *

A perfectly regular man dressed in body armor with temperature insulating fabrics traversed through a lonely hallway, his only company being the faint winds outside. For him, it was just another day on the job as a Sumeragi Security officer. He was running gopher duty again for the scientists stationed in this god forsaken frozen wasteland. Distracting himself from the balancing act of carrying a stack of papers and a tray of coffee, he took a gander out into the heavy storm outside. _"At the very least I'm not stuck outside like those poor saps." _Allowing his concentration to drift for just a bit, images of an alien structure half buried in the snow came to his mind's eye. Internally the man shuddered, the aura of that thing sent chills in him. That opinion was one that was shared among many who had been the first ones to investigate the site. Many from that first expedition came down with a variety of illness from that visit. He was of no exception. Much to his irritation when he recalled, the officer remembered how the scientists rudely insisted that those severely ill stuck around to be poked and prodded at by the scientists before they got to a place away from the wreckage. _"Snobbish Elitist assholes"_ Allowing a breath to escape his mouth, the man internally mused, "_At the very least this cursed job paid the bills." _

Like lightning, a migraine came onto the officer. He almost dropped the stack of papers. **_"Wouldn't it be better if this entire facility just burned?" _**Feelings of resentment burned to the surface. In that moment the security guard was sorely tempted to pull out his standard issue pistol. The two cumbersome things in his hands stopped him. As quickly as it came, the migraine left. _"Ugh, I must be getting stir crazy... Yeah that must be it. That blizzard out there has been at it for over a week. Communication's down so I can't contact mom and dad. Yes that must be it." _Steadying his feet, the man continued on his way.

In under a minute, the man came to the autopsy room. Setting down the tray of coffee and the stack of papers, the menial task was done. Taking a pause, the officer turned as he was leaving. He was curious about this so called 'alien lifeform' that was found among the wreckage.

* * *

The stranger was still reaching out. He felt the intrusions puncturing his skin pulse. They were pumping something into his systems. Each pump of fluid felt like a hammer strike. Each one pounding him into the floor that was unconsciousness. In spite of this, finally the stranger latched onto that wisp of energy. He clutched it in a vice grip as warmth flowed through his body, beginning to purge the intrusive liquids circulating his body.

* * *

For a single moment, the security officer had zoned out. Nay, it was his body was moving on auto pilot. _"W-what's happening to me?" _The moment his eyes had found themselves on the black haired teen strapped to the autopsy table, something took over. Something was going on with the scientists as they began to descend into chaos. Something to do with 'drugs not working'. He couldn't really focus on what those grade A a-holes were doing though. Something intrusive was funneling itself into his brain. It was different from the rage that he had taken as him getting an extreme case of cabin fever. The feeling was like arctic water pouring past his skin, muscle and organs and directly onto his skeleton. Blood was rushing in his ears as his hands unclasped the holster on his gun, undoing the safety while chanting words that weren't his own.

* * *

The intense light blinded the teen, his eyes shuttering to a close before readjusting. His head was a haze, his body feeling wobbly like the noodle dish served by the Ostrons. Glowing eyes finally took in his surroundings. People behind what was probably a reinforced window, their movements erratic and so were the faint voices he could hear coming from their rapidly moving mouths. As the alien teen got up to his two feet he began to tear at the tubes stuck in his body. Caring little for the holes beginning to bleed, the boy continued.

Giving himself a moment to focus, the child's glowing eyes intensified. Internally, the eldritch energies of the _Void _was rapidly cycling his blood stream. The sooner the drugs were washed from his systems, the better. He would've maintained this focus for however long he needed until a sharp pain tore into the teen's shoulder. Not expecting that, a scream of pain leapt from his throat as his uninjured arm rose to the source of pain. His hands returned with a warm and sticky feeling. Blood.

* * *

Down several hallways away from the scene of chaos, a near empty room similar in size and composition to the autopsy room were two coffins. Inside one of them a tall, ebony humanoid stirred.

* * *

"THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" a scream permeated the room. One of the scientists attempted to grab at the gun but was swatted aside by the more muscular officer. "The abomination must die..." A prisoner to his own body, the officer could only question what was happening to him. "It has to die... It has to die..." His mouth flapped. Slowly the chant increased louder and louder.

When it reached a crescendo, a bright light reflected against the window. The sound of shattering glass and the feeling of heat were the last things the occupants within the observation room heard and felt.

* * *

The Tenno bit back a scream as his fingers dug deeper into his shoulder. Each nearly inaudible squelch was a signal as the pain got worse. Before long a metal on metal sound rang out. The bullet was successfully dislodged from the alien's Acromion. Times like this it was both a blessing and a curse for having Void reinforced bone structure, mused the teen. With that done, the _Operator_ took the time to take his un-bloodied forearm and wipe his nose with it. Molding a grenade made form pure Void energy in under a second while under the duress of being shot was quite taxing.

Re-centering himself, the boy could finally take in what was in front of him. Klaxon blared in the background as he stared at the empty window frame. The room beyond was a broken mess of tech, miscellaneous office supplies, and bodies. It didn't take a genius to figure what had tripped the alarms. His brows furrowed as he recalled the shooter's eyes. They were the single most vivid thing that stood above the mess that were his memories of the _Zahriman_. Those were the eyes of madness induced by the nebulous properties of the Void.

Snapping to attention, the black haired teen heard the distant sound of footfalls. Those were undoubtedly security officers. Even if that shot was a rude wake-up call, it was enough to purge his mental faculties of those drugs. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins along with that mystic power that was the center of his being. A pair of glowing eyes fell upon a vent in the broken observation room.

* * *

The first response times of Sumeragi were unparalleled, especially in their own facility. A squad of men came upon a scene of destruction. Limbs were strewn and corpses mutilated. Computers sparked and papers were strewn haphazardly. "It's like a bomb went off here..." a second voice cut in, "Quiet Lieutenant, we need to investigate this room and the surrounding area, the subject couldn't have gone that far considering what drugs they were pumping into him." "Right... Commander what is protocol when we find Subject 3?" the now identified commander responded,"When we find him we are to detain him, if he struggles we shoot to kill, it's the instructions the head scientist gave us in the briefing; pay more attention Lieutenant" the first voice responded, "Yes sir!" The commander made a grab for his radio, preparing to report in to command about the containment breach.

Before the commander could even utter a word, the radio crackled to life. "Attention all squads! Subject 1 has breached containment, he's massacring personnel, we need backup now! Hurry to the command center and isolate Wing B, I repeat isolate Wi-" the line went dead. After a pause, the men systematically scouted then left the room, unaware of a pair of eyes from the vents watching them as they left.

* * *

"_Subject 1? Wait that's probably..." _that thought line trailed. He began to focus in on himself, probing for a bond. It was faint, but there. "_Damn, transference signal is frayed. Probably has something to do with the crash and the drugs. How long was I out?"_ He restrained a growl of frustration,_ "I'm going to have to rendezvous with Umbra. Judging from their armor designs and that pistol, were they some offshoot of the Corpus? ...That couldn't be right though, granted both have sleek designs but no Corpus would utilize ballistic weaponry. Who were they?" _Such contemplation ceased as the boy shoved the grate out of place. He had to keep things low key, not that it was hard now that Umbra was wreaking havoc through the facility.

As his arms came to the light up above, the Tenno took the time to notice himself. He was wearing a medical gown which exposed his muscled arms. On the skin's surface were a large series of scars. They were far too clean to be a weapon. Those were surgical incisions, the boy identified. He squeezed his eyes shut, "_No time to linger on this. I can figure out what they were doing to me later. For now I need to move and rendezvous with Umbra." _A goal presented itself, recalling the guard captain mentioning a security room. _"If he could run sabotage on their command it'll be all the more easy to meet up with Umbra. They were also planning on locking down Wing B." _The lone Operator resolved himself to sowing discord in the facility.

Feeling up his previously wounded shoulder, the raven haired youth nodded to himself. His Void powers kicked in and made it so that the wound seemingly never existed. Quickly and carefully maneuvering around the bits of glass and machinery that littered the ground, the boy found himself within a curved hallway. To isolate all other sounds, he pressed an ear to the wall, hearing nothing. Confident in his isolation, he began to scout the corridor. After reading the arrows on the signs whose words he couldn't read _"What kind of script is that?" _and possibly going in a circle for 5 minutes, he had found the security room.

Dark grey eyes glowed briefly before closing.

A wave of lethargy came over him. A natural side effect as now he was intangible and invisible. He had entered Void Mode. Though his movements and vision were slightly hampered, he only needed to walk around a corner. After a minute of slowly walking through the frantically moving security personnel, the Tenno stopped in a corner of the room. From here everyone's back was turned to him. _"A bit more concentration is gonna be required for a controlled beam without an Amp to assist, but that's just fine." _Eldritch energies coalesced on his fingertips. Allowing his physical body to re- manifest into the physical world, the boy took aim at the closest person whose parietal bone faced him.

* * *

Blood and viscera caked the walls. The sound of gunfire echoed through the hallways as a shadowy figure ran in an animalistic gait. Bullets and lasers bouncing off the imposing figure's frame like water off a metal roof. The figure roared in response, a flashing light burning out the retinas of the line of personnel that were previously firing upon them. In a millisecond he cleared the distance between himself and the firing line of security personnel and proceeded to slaughter them all, his arm blades serving as adequate tools for the job despite their bluntness. The armor of the personnel folding like paper to sheer kinetic force.

After no more movement came from the mangled corpses the figure paused. He felt a signal, faint and broken. It knew where it was coming from, with renewed vigor it restarted its prowl, some doors that it came to which were previously shut began opening, shortening his journey.

* * *

He couldn't help smiling as he observed Umbra's progress in the facility from a live security cam. Hovering over the various dead personnel, the backs of their skulls still emitting smoke from the pin point accurate void beams that had destroyed their brains, he began to type away at commands. The controls of the command center being surprisingly easy to utilize. "_Very peculiar, most of the time this would require the direct hacking of Ordis or… Lotus…" _Cold stings of abandonment and betrayal seized his heart.

His mood dampened, the boy liberated an ear module and radio still hooked to the local channel from a corpse. After a moment of listening, the boy left the command center, making his way to Umbra.

* * *

A contingent of security forces was double timing it through the hallways. Communication had been lost earlier with East command and it was apparent that the threat was massive enough that it had decimated the 6 platoons guarding the building. As they turned a hallway, they stumbled on a boy in a medical gown. From the description they had been given in the short briefing, the child was Subject 2.

"Hands over your head where I can see 'em!" The boy seemed to have been deep in thought, his attention still elsewhere. "I REPEAT, HANDS OVER YOUR HEAD OR WE WILL SHOOT" That got the aloof youth's attention. The youth lazily raised his arms up, in his left hand a radio. His response was delivered with a certain combination of casualness and cold indifference, "Are you sure you should be giving such attention to little ole me? There is something much more dangerous mucking about this facility besides me." The lead security personnel, presumably the commander, tilted his head at this. Before he could respond the wall adjacent to the soldiers exploded.

* * *

The boy observed in the sidelines. The skirmish was quick and bloody. Security guards were dying left and right. Some bludgeoned to death either by Umbra's fists or kicks, others torn to shreds by the berserker's bare hands and blade arms. While a small number were horrifically and painfully dismembered, their wounds instantly seared by the a blue Exalted Blade's heat. In the aftermath, a lone soldier who stood at the back took several shaky steps backwards, finally collapsing on the ground in a fetal position. The smell of urine was evidence enough of his pants being soiled from Umbra's brutal display of violence. With uncanny ease the boy walked over the dismembered corpses and to the soldier. Kneeling to be at eye level with the soldier a hand fell upon the side of the soldier's green helm.

Seeing how unresponsive the soldier was, his breathing erratic, the child tipped his head up in contemplation."_I don't usually do this,"_ Flashes of two grotesque and decaying women playing out in his head,"_but what else can I do? Besides, the world is already morally bankrupt place anyway." _The Void coursed through his hands and into the soldier's head, his mind unraveled like origami. Memories of the base's layout was laid bare for the boy to take in.

After a moment, the boy allowed his hand to slide off the soldier's helmet. He wasn't as cruel as to dive in and uproot the man's entire memories, thus causing even more agony for the man, but even still, the fully developed mind was incapable of handling the powers of the Void. This lone soldier was reduced to a vegetative state. At the very least not having devolved into some sort of being less than human. With a quick gesture of the chin, Umbra grabbed the unresponsive soldier and snapped the man's neck. As Umbra's gaze met his Operator's, Umbra's stuck an armored hand out and flipped it palm side up. The boy merely smiled before taking the hand, his form taking on a glowing, grey silhouette before disappearing into motes of Void energy, the energy flowing into Umbra.

Making movements akin to a deep breath, the black, armored form of Umbra began to move again. Its gait this time was different. Instead of the animalistic prowl it had, it moved with a more civilized grace to its movements. The movement more akin to the walk cycle of a proper soldier. The alien warrior began walking westward, off towards the direction of West Command and the crash site both buildings were built around.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**So yeah this is my first fanfic. The update times are going to be extremely sporadic between my drive to continue writing and my personal schedule. This entire chapter was just a product of my procrastination and not properly finishing up my essay work.**

**So in a nutshell, don't place too many hopes in me though any criticism to my writing is well appreciated. **

**If you managed to read the chapter before I updated the entire first chapter, yeah sorry. I was bothered by the lack of the dash lines I wrote and this update is to fix that. Again sorry for making the first iteration of this chapter hard to read.**

**Alright 2nd and last update to this chapter, ideally the next will be dropping a little later tonight. Changes I've done is add more inner dialogue to the rage mode nameless guard and yes, the guard took too much VOID, it's bad for your health. also a short Umbra awakening dialogue. **


	2. Chapter 2: Snow Fight

**Chapter 2 boys and gals. Anyways, don't expect me to update this regularly. Also be sure to write down a review. Anyways, since i forgot to stick this into the first chapter **

"_Thoughts" _"normal dialogue" "**sudden switch/ demonic/ certain mechanical voice" **

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

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Ch. 2

According the the memories "liberated" from that soiled soldier, the weaponry that was found in the crash site had been placed in a research room within what Sumeragi personnel referred to as West Command. The locks placed upon Tenno weaponry would hold, especially considering how even the likes of the Corpus elite have yet to crack said locks, though it would still be safer to reclaim his weapons back first before going towards the crash sight. "_I hope Ordis is alright..."_

While actively thinking up his future actions, Umbra moved undetected in the cover of the blizzard. This storm had quite the fortunate timing, being heavy enough that Sumeragi couldn't reliable use long distance communication or use any of their various flying vehicles.

After dodging a patrol, keeping to the snow and shadows, the alien eventually snuck into West Command. Strangely enough, the buildings seemed different from the Corpus or Grineer. There was no chance that it was Grineer, the buildings too angular. But the tech wasn't advanced, in fact it looked externally and internally a league or two behind the Corpus.

Things were rather frantic, justified considering how East Command had suffered a complete communication blackout. Still maintaining cover within the shadows, the layout of the base came to Umbra, his traversal being like a fish to water.

When the Warframe came upon the room found within that soldier's memories, he found a small group of 3 guarding the room, standing outside. He made short work of them, ending them with swift, fatal injuries to the neck. All of the strikes dealt with finesse and in complete silence. "_It wouldn't hurt to try out some of their weaponry, even if they'll probably prove inferior to my preexisting armaments." _Umbra began to pick through the inventory of the fallen soldiers. In the end the haul Umbra came up with were a few Grenades, a pistol, and a laser rifle. Taking a few straps from the men's armored uniforms, he slotted each weapon into place.

After doing a once over on the security panel, Umbra took off the helmet of who he presumed to be the highest ranking officer among the three corpses, using their glazed eyes to fool the eye sensor.

The research room was very similar to where he was kept in but instead of an autopsy table and surgical tools lying on some sanitized mobile tables, there was something akin to a metal work bench, various tools you'd see in a workshop strewn about. "_It seems they weren't able to crack open my guns, good." _

Picking up the familiar and sleek form of the Battacor he found disappointment in the magazine. Empty. Storing it within a pocket dimension created by the Void, he moved onto the next weapon that had been left to the side. The Zakti was intact, one of the gas casings missing, he shrugged it off and picked up what looked like a miniature buzzsaw. Armored gloves held within the rather ornate, gold accented cutting tool. "_The Glaive Prime, well it'll be a good substitute to simply punching and tearing with my bare hands." _Umbra's veiled eyes locked onto the ruined form of an ornate, gold, pear shaped machine. "_So it's still in that damaged state, well I still need it for what I'm gonna do." _Taking a few spare straps that he had stripped off of the soldiers' bodies he tied the ruined machine to his hip. Shifting his weight, he nodded at how adequately it was secured. The Tenno's gaze then fell upon a massive turret, bearing a blue teal color and as long as Umbra was tall. "_That, will have to wait." _Umbra then left the room as quickly and silently as he came.

* * *

It was a simple matter, taking out West Command's command center. After stealing and eavesdropping on the Sumeragi soldier's radio lines, Umbra was on the move again, this time towards the crash site.

* * *

It was child's play dispatching the few Sumeragi soldiers patrolling the crash site. The Orbiter itself was still intact, though the Liset landing craft was strangely missing. "_No doubt due to the crash, that Corpus ambush did take out a few dock locks keeping the Liset and Orbiter connected." _Umbra then began scaling the downed ship, his hand finding its way onto a seemingly blank sheet of metal on the Orbiter's surface. A glow came about and a door into the Orbiter was open.

* * *

The scene that the lone Tenno came upon could be summed up in one word: dead. All lights were off and any modules out and about were completely shut off. Wordlessly, he banged the side of a door frame within the ship. In a split second the lights turned on. "**IF YOU THINK YOU CAN TEAR APART MY SHIP THEN YOU HAVE SOMETHING ELSE COMIN**\- oh Operator, you're back! I knew a mere crash wouldn't put you down!" Ordis's voice colored with relief and happiness, then Ordis began to babble in a panicked manner, "ifyousochoosepleasedeletethisincompetantcephalonand..."

Within the Warframe, an eyebrow began to twitch with irritation. _"I should- need to stop him"_, "Ordis, ORDIS. Please. Calm down. I'm not going to delete you or punish you, that crash was inevitable. I wanted to check and see if you're fine and a damage report on the ship" there was a pause before Ordis's voice piped up "Oh Operator, you're much too kind for this… broken Cephalon… well, I am alright though the ship HAS been damaged. Warp drive engines, propulsion engines, camouflage systems, a few external sensors, Warframe storage, and Weapon storage have been damaged. Nothing has leaked out of the ship itself besides the exhaust from the engines. Regretfully, the storage containers have been damaged in such a way that the doors have been crushed shut. There is no way to brute force open storage without damaging the internal contents." The weapon and Warframe containers have been broken? Internally, the Operator cringed as he recalled a certain curved, Orokin great sword kept inside.

After a moment, the youth's curt voice echoed through the Orbiter, "What of resources?" a brief pause before Ordis replied "All raw material storages have come out unscathed, though if you want to repair the engines, weapon, and Warframe storage, we lack the hardware to repair those. Also the lack of the Liset will hamper progress."

The Operator cursed. Now there was one more question the Tenno need answering, "Ordis how long has it been since we landed?" Ordis's response was prompt, "Approximately 5 months. My apologies Operator, I was keeping myself in a sleep state, set to only wake up if someone attempted to take apart the Orbiter."

_"Five months? That was concerning, especially being on Earth with the presence of Grineer."_ "Wait, you didn't mention Camo systems, we can repair those right?"

Ordis's response was immediate "Yes, we can repair the camo systems, but such things require automated external workers and a few days. Though the outside weather is clearing up the most worrisome factor are the various life signs meandering about. Tell me operator, are they benign?" The immediate response from the Tenno was no. It was apparent they were investigating his weaponry and they had pumped him full of drugs, sliced him open, and ordered essentially a shoot on sight order. Suffice to say it was apparent that they were hostile, especially now when Umbra and he had slaughtered a good chunk of their personnel. "Yeah… at this point no." Another brief pause. "It seems that you'll have to- **RIP THEM ALL APART**. I suggest striking before the blizzard completely lets up."

Contemplating, the Tenno came to the conclusion that if he allowed the unknown faction called themselves 'Sumeragi' to escape, the place would soon be crawling with their soldiers. This reminded the Tenno of Fortuna and Cetus, how the ground forces could so easily swarm his position in a heartbeat if allowed to get a proper signal out. Even worse the Tenno was working with very limited supplies with no extraction. "Yeah, that sounds like the correct course of action. Also is there any spare ammunition available?" "My apologies Operator, there isn't. They were all in the weapons storage, is there an issue with your current armament?"

_"So no ammo resupply huh." _The Tenno thought to himself, "Well, I'll just have to improvise then." he spoke aloud.

Walking up towards the upgrade and customization kiosk, Umbra's hands grasped a familiar, sleek black sheath. After dismissing the weapon into the void Umbra's hands fell upon the Zakti's ammunition chambers, emptying the clips and feeding it to the mostly incapacitated but still functioning Carrier. As the damaged machine chugged along, recollections of that soldier's memories came to mind, Sumeragi had an aircraft runway. Three helicopters were there and were rugged enough to fly in heavy snow. I would be prudent to go for the aircraft runway during this... mission. "Ordis, it seems that the best course of action is to perform a complete extermination mission, I would like you to provide any kind of information you can get with what external sensors that are undamaged alright?" as he said those words he conjured the communication ear module and radio he had taken from the East Command center, placing it into a slot next to the Vitruvian. "Of course my operator, I bid you good luck and- **SPILL BLOOD IN UNFETTERED VIOLENCE**\- good health on your excursion."

* * *

A trio of properly clothed soldiers stood ankle deep in snow. One of them not so stoically voiced his complaints, "Snow… snow… AND MORE SNOW." the man let out a scream before being cut off by one of his compatriots. "will you shut up Leeroy?!" "oh fuck off Johnson, I'm freezing my off my ass here." The two blue dome headed soldiers glared at one another. The third member of the group could only sigh. This was the 2nd time in an hour they got into a verbal conflict with one another. Fiddling with his rocket launcher holster, the most calm member of the group addressed the both of them "Look, can we just calm down and keep doing our jobs?" "No way!" replied Leeroy, "This job is garbage and we've lost contact with command, probably because of this strange ass blizzard. I'd rather be indoors sipping a cup of hot cocoa than be here. Bet those lucky bastards stationed to guard the circle jerking scientists must be laughing at us while sleeping in their oh so warm cots. Those pieces of shit." It was at this point that the level headed soldier expected Johnson to cut in, but there was near total silence, the only sound being the howling of the wind.

Taking a look around the vicinity, he found no trace of Johnson, "... Johnson…?" A gurgling sound was heard, the soldier turned finding Leeroy, held by the throat with a sword sticking straight through his chin and out the top of his helmet. He was being held a foot off the air by some sort of armored figure. A scream belt out. His scream as adrenaline was pumped through his veins and he unholstered the rocket launcher. "LOCK ON" the mechanical voice built into the rocket launcher announced. Without hesitation he pulled the trigger as the ebony thing turned to look at him. There was a flash and a ringing in his ears as he fell onto the snow with a crunch.

* * *

Dropping the now still soldier, Umbra walked up to the mangled body of the one who used a rocket launcher. The pistol in his hand still smoking. It was a spur of the moment attack, the pistol piercing the rocket as it was leaving the barrel. The impact strong enough to cause the rocket to prematurely detonate right in the soldier's face. Strangled breathing was heard from the near dead body. The Warframe walked up and looked down at the soldier. The arm that once held the rocket was merely a burnt stub, an entire side littered with shrapnel and burn marks with the leg on that same side also being a broken mess akin to his burnt side. There were no words left for this dead man. Out of a form of pity, Umbra unsheath Skiajati and finished off the soldier with a stab to the neck.

"Operator! That explosion, are you alright?" As the smoke cleared around me, he responded "Yes Ordis, i'm fine." though there was a little bit of static, Ordis's voice was still easy to make out, "that's good news but that explosion alerted all the life signals my sensors picked up, they're coming towards your location!" "_Well that's convenient... for me"._ Confidence oozing from the Tenno's voice as he responded, "That's good, let them come." Finishing that line, the shuffling of snow came to his auditory receptors, already he could see their silhouettes amidst the blizzard. "Ordis, patch communication to those troopers' lines" As the silhouettes came to firing distance, Ordis's voice answered "... done Operator." Umbra's body coiled like a spring, wordlessly he charged forward with pistol drawn and pointed at the closest target.

* * *

The light of gunfire sparked throughout the wide expanse of snow, some bits of the engagement obscured by the persistent blizzard. The armored figure of Umbra dashed between gunfire and rockets, those he got close to were slashed to pieces either by the Glaive or the Skiajati. When too far, Umbra exchanged gunfire with the soldiers, dealing debilitating wounds that left them open for more bullets or a melee finisher. After eating up all the ammo left in the pistol the pistol was discarded and Umbra switched over to the laser rifle. It was a semiautomatic weapon with a large kick to it. That recoil to Umbra was nothing. Body shots from this were more than enough to melt through body armor and down a solider. At a certain point a squad consisting of Grenadiers carrying riot shields and a firing squad of rocket launcher troops came to bear. In the end their formation was meaningless. As Umbra fired round after round of hot plasma at the wall of shields, Umbra tossed a grenade, the explosive unknown to the grenadiers due to their focus of maintaining formation and their fellow man firing rockets. Their precious formation shattered the instant the grenade detonated.

Swooping in like a vulture, Umbra tore apart any stragglers from that formation, managing to lift a rocket launcher off of the still cooling corpse of a soldier. As he prepared to face off against an incoming platoon of riflemen and troopers on snowmobiles all collectively making moves to encircle Umbra, a certain piece of radio chatter was picked up, "Dammit!, that monster is still tearing our men apart. At this rate we'll all die! We need reinforcements!" "Calm down, first we need to evacuate the remaining scientists and their data to warn the rest of Sumeragi; with the blizzard lightening up, we can evacuate via our 3 helicopters." "But that beast will undoubtedly catch up!" "Don't worry, we'll deploy all of our Mantis units to stop it. "U-understood, begin defrosting process on all helicopters and Mantis units!" With a several stabs, slashes, clothes-lining, and well placed shots with the laser rifle, both snowmobile riders and remaining soldiers were decimated.

Before a step further could be made the sound of machinery moving at high speeds through snow could be heard. With the blizzard having mostly lifted the distinct silhouettes of massive machines nearly twice as tall as Umbra became visible. They sped across the snow with attachments built onto the legs, highlighted by glowing exhaust. The contraption's purpose no doubt being to give each mech a speed boost and stopping their massive frames from breaking ice and getting stuck. As the leader of the pack of 10 came close, Umbra made out the details of a boxy, quadrupedal machine armed with two high powered machine guns, shoulders that seemed too blocky to be just shoulders, and a beak like face positioned in a seemingly hunchback position. All 10 were colored white to match with the snowy environment though their glowing yellow eyes gave each one's position away. As the first 2 encircled Umbra the internal mechanisms of their turret guns began to warm up.

Within his mind a voice "harumphed" at having some confirmation that these 'Sumeragi' people were aligned in some way with the Corpus due to their with usage of these proxies. All the more reason to wipe them out. Firing a single laser rifle shot to no effect the Warframe was forced to dodge. It was a combination bullet jumping, rolling that minimized the damage he would've received by the hail fire. At the end of the assault his shields had taken quite the beating, being at about half capacity. The shoulders of the 2 mechs that had sped ahead of its brethren began to open up. "_As I suspected" _what lay underneath the shoulder armor were missile pods. Unlike the Raptor series of proxies though, the missiles were larger and simply perfect targets to shoot at. With two well placed shots from the rifle both shoulders on one of the 'Mantis' mechs lit up, the explosion leaving the machine armless. After dodging the missile barrage of the 2nd Mantis, Umbra was prepared to simply wait until Mantis #2 decided to open its shoulder missile pods again but a humming sound briefly took him out of focus, turning back to what he had thought to be an incapacitated Mantis.

The Mantis's beak-like face opened up, releasing a torrent of hot plasma straight at Umbra's black clad form. He dodged out of the way with a roll, the laser dealing a glancing blow on its brother unit, taking one arm and carving a little into the main body. The brother unit collapsed immediately, a glowing, orange pod of sorts popping out of the main body. Steam flowed out of the pod "_An overheating problem?" _With little hesitation the Operator switched over to the Sumeragi bazooka, locking on and firing at the exposed, glowing pod. The pod exploded, along with the mech though the majority of its external chassis was intact. "_I can use this to my advantage." _It was then that a barrage of missiles and gunfire lit up the snow around the scarf wearing warrior. "_Damn, the others got here all at once." _The 8 that had lagged slightly behind the lead duo was upon him now, each seemingly cycling between one another with either missile volleys or bullet hail fire while in a loose formation.

"_This is getting ridiculous." _After dodging a beam fired from the armless Mantis, the beam fizzling out before it could hit one of its brethren, the warrior began to notice just how much each one moved in tandem with one another, the formation they used tightening to accommodate the Warframe's movements. "_You're kidding right? They have a basic learning AI built into these things?!" _the Operator's growl went unheard by the cold machines _"So fooling one into firing on the other was out of the question, but how do I induce an overheat on one of these things?"_ Rolling out of the way, one of the units boosted its engines, having enough guts to try and ram the quick-footed Tenno. _"They're extremely mobile too,"_ Before he could pursue, bullet fire halted his attempt at a run. Getting close enough to use Exalted Blade was ill advised especially with how open this battlefield was. His situation was worsened by them covering for one another whenever they made a pass. His actual weapons would be able to breach their armored hulls easily but the Tenno had to conserve his ammunition for he only had 1 clip for the Battacor and 1 clip for the Zakti. "_The Zakti… wait a minute didn't I modify it to be able to deal with the Corpus?"_ Summoning the Zakti from the Void and into Umbra's hands, he took aim at one of the fresh Mantis units. The pellet that lodged itself onto the alabaster white face of that unit began to emit a cloud of toxic fumes and magnetic waves. The sparks from the machine made it apparent that it caused some internal system to short circuit, that glowing orange pod rearing its surface to the frigid air. I chucked the Glaive at the core, detonating the Glaive as it made contact with the core. The Glaive twirled and landed in the snow from the explosion.

"_That option is gone, for now." S_ince he was retrospectively too greedy, the Tenno had taken the Skiajati with him earlier along with the Glaive. The hammer-space provided by the Void for Warframe platforms could only hold 3 actual weapons. Those stored within the hammer space would eventually return to the Void and back into a Warframe's hands. In his present situation, the Tenno would have to manually retrieve his Glaive from the snow. After dodging even more gunfire, the Zakti was fired again. Like last time, the magnetic gas disabled the Mantis just like its previous sibling unit. Bullet jumping over some bullet fire, no doubt meant to support its kin, Umbra took aim with the bazooka "_Last shot" _before firing and allowing the now spent Bazooka to be carried out of his hands from the recoil. Narrowly avoided the fireball that burst forth from the now blazing remains of the Mantis, he rolled to maintain momentum as something in the ground cracked. Umbra's foot caught on something in the snow and tripping up the previously graceful swordsman. He suddenly felt the brisk air of the Arctic as he was limply tossed up by the explosion of missiles.

The stinging of burns and concussive force actually hurt, the explosions this time managing to breach Umbra's shields. As he flew he noticed the closeness of a destroyed Mantis. Landing on his back, the warrior rolled on his side and into the safe coverage of a the armored husk. "_Their shots are getting more accurate, probably with the blizzard's heavy winds fading away. The constant bulletfire and missile explosions are also making the packed snow fragile". C_hecking his inventory of looted gear, he found he had 5 grenades left "_Three'll work". _Focusing, the sensations felt upon exiting his Warframe was absolute cold, the air flowing up and around his hospital gown clad body. Bare feet feeling like they were burning against the subzero temperatures of this frozen wasteland. _"Should've tried switching clothes when I was on the Orbiter." _

The feelings were numbed when he went into void mode, jumping straight above the husk Umbra had taken cover behind, the practical ghost dashed down then slid directly underneath one of the Mantis units. Just like how Operators could turn themselves into energy and will that energy to travel long distances back over to their Warframe, the same in reverse was true. His squishy human form vanished, in his place now sliding underneath the Mantis was Umbra with three unpinned grenades. Dropping them directly under the snow camo-ed Mantis and going into a bullet jump, the explosion of three grenades, though not dealing any real damage to the Mantis, caused the packed snow beneath to destabilize and fall apart. The massive mechanical frame was now entrapped in ice and snow. In all likelihood a measure to prevent total freezing of external and internal systems, the core sprang out and began emitting heavy amounts of steam. Skiajati drawn, he leapt and fell upon the core, its structure compromised by the the Nikana's blade.

Taking cover behind the still flaming husk, Umbra spotted a familiar gold glint some ways in open snow directly in line of sight of a Mantis. Taking a few potshots at the other Mantis units with the laser rifle he then ran, sliding adjacent to the Glaive and grabbed it. Quickly, he then chucked it at the glaring face of the nearest Mantis. The beaked face had a deep gash, the razor sharp blades digging into the face like a butcher knife to steak. Detonating the Glaive, causing further damage and said weapon returning to Umbra's wrist, nearly slashing out his black hand, the Mantis collapsed. That familiar core bursting forth in a cloud of steam. Shooting a burst from the Battacor, it was more than enough for the quadruped tank to explode into a ball of fire. Five down, five to go.

"_Last Zakti shot"_. The pellet lodged itself dead onto a Mantis's face. Collapsing as expected, he jumped and spun the Glaive like a buzzsaw. The corrosive effects he had installed making the already sharp blade be slick with armor eating acid. The fragile core stood no chance and detonated. Riding the explosion and hitting the apex of his jump height, the lone operative saw the remaining 4 open their beaks collectively. The light of plasma was building up in their mechanical maws. They were aiming squarely at all potential spots where his current flight path would take him to in 1 second. "_Trying to box me in are you?" _Letting out a Battacor burst into the gaping maw of one of the Mantises, its face distorted into a mess of metal further warped by the destabilization of its energy build up. The accrued damage was enough that the entire chassis that held the head and core detonated. Using the Void in an aim-glide, killing his momentum instantly, he landed right where that downed Mantis was once aiming at. As that Mantis's resounding explosion echoed through the frozen wasteland blanketed by heavy snowfall, Umbra's veiled gaze turned to the 3 yellow visors glowering at his arrogant form. Their maws already having released their payload had closed. No doubt all three were, as a collective, calculating their next moves.

Behind the 2 intact Mantis, the first of this series of mechs that he squared off against hung behind all the others, being the sole robot to be firing lasers throughout most of the battle. Though now its shots were less interspersed with the others and much more haphazard, no doubt born of their dwindling numbers. That would be Umbra's next target. Going through the snow was now troubling, the heat from all the explosions and laser fire making some parts slushy. It a bit of a relief for the Operator that his adversaries, too, were suffering from this to a certain degree; forced to hover over more solid patches of snow lest their leg contraptions fail on them thus killing their ability to maneuver around. Sprinting forward, the target was clear, the contraptions on the feet of Mantis #1 were to be taken out. As he approached, one of the 2 intact Mantises attempted to fire a volley of missiles at Umbra's speeding form. Due to its positioning it was out of sync with the others and thus leaving it open for a counter. Taking as careful aim as he could considering the circumstances, Umbra shot with the Sumeragi laser rifle, the iridescent shot detonating the missile pod and leaving that Mantis with one arm less.

Now before Mantis #1, he drew his sword. Sprinting next to the arm-less mech, the robot seemingly panicked like a soldier of flesh and blood with its charging of its laser and attempt to backtrack. The Operator promptly sliced out the white walking tank's leg boosters. Now off balanced and firing its laser at a tilted angle, the Tenno gave a swift, single legged kick to the side of the mech. The trajectory changed from the strike and sliced into the 1 armed Mantis the Tenno had dealt damage to in the earlier sprint. The beam sliced center mass and caused that machine to detonate. Now finally in such close proximity, the Warframe then conjured the familiar, blue glow of its Exalted Blade and stabbed upwards. Dismissing the blade as he drew it out of the sparking machinery, he dove for cover as the mech like its brethren exploded in a familiar ball of fire.

Hearing the distinct sounds of missiles launching and rapid anti personnel fire, he knew that last mech was panicking to a certain degree; It was hoping to take him down in a fiery blaze via unloading everything it had at him. His response was prompt, the Battacor's alternate fire melting through the armored form of the Mantis like a hot knife through butter. What was left was a smoldering set of legs that quickly sunk into the slushy snow beneath. Soaking in the afterglow of accomplishment, Ordis's voice cut through the moment of silence, "Operator! The blizzard's winds have completely stopped. I believe it is prudent that you make your way to East Command, movement of life signals suggests moves towards evacuation!" Snapping out of his reverie, Umbra sprinted off, East Command some 80m from his current location clearly visible now that the blanketing blizzard had faded into mere heavy snowfall.

* * *

His approach was swift, Umbra clearing the fence and made his way to the massive aircraft runway. It was there at the pathway before the runway opened up that he was met with a platoon of troops, split into three distinct types. The ones at the forefront wielding shields, those behind wielding energy rifles, and the ones behind the riflemen wielding bazookas. "_I've got no time for this" _With unprecedented speed the armored alien warrior sliced into and through all the troopers obstructing his way. Leaving behind smoldering corpses, he ran onto the runway and spotted the closest vehicle attempt liftoff. The primitive aircraft spun its propeller blades, clearly projecting its attempt at departure. Taking the pin off one of the last two grenades, Umra chucked it right into the helicopter's still open door. There was distinct panicked shuffling before the aircraft detonated, not even able to get 2 feet off the ground. Same couldn't be said for the remaining 2, the second closest to Umbra managing lift off and unveiling its specialization as a combat helicopter with the whir of miniature miniguns on the beak of the chopper.

The spray of anti personnel rounds sparked across the runway as Umbra brought his Skiajati to bear, managing to block off a good chunk of the rounds. Despite his solid defense, the sheer quantity and caliber of the bullets was rapidly eating at the Warframe's shields. Going into a sprint, Umbra ducked behind an armored vehicle whose windows rapidly shattered into an innumerable amount of pieces, armor plates becoming a dented mess. In the pitter patter of metal against metal, the Tenno thought of something. Taking out the last grenade and energy rifle, he stuck the unpinned grenade into the rifle barrel and then, like an Olympic javelin thrower, threw the rifle. The combat helicopter shot the positively un-aerodynamic projectile and the resulting explosion was bright enough to blind the pilots. Shrapnel from the grenade clanged against the helicopter, cracking the glass. Their blindness and the noise caused both pilots to flinch. Pressing the advantage of the stunned pilots, the Warframe brought out the Battacor and shot a burst of rounds. The helicopter's front windows crumpled and the pilots pulverized in the face of Sentient and Corpus tech. Hot plasma melted through the entire helicopter and thus it was lit aflame, descending like a falling funeral pyre.

Past the flames and snow, it was apparent the larger, non combat oriented helicopter had taken flight and was beginning to leave the base to parts unknown. In haste, the frame of war sprinted. Jumping on the falling, flaming combat helicopter and using the main rotor as a springboard, he bullet jumped up, appearing like a swan emerging gracefully from a watery surface of a pond. While falling like a snowflake, Umbra took aim. A single laser beam more akin to a railgun shot rang out, the remaining helicopter went down in a blaze of fire.

On the ground now, the Operator's voice echoed through the now clear Arctic wasteland. "Ordis, are there any more life signs?" A voice only heard by the Tenno responded "With my now clear sensors, no. There aren't anymore signs of movement within the bases surrounding your Orbiter." After the motions of a breath, the Tenno mused "So, mission accomplished…."

* * *

**There ends the 2nd chapter, apologies for that broken promise of getting this out last night. Anyways, if you have any criticisms, feedback, mistakes, and advice on writing please submit a review. I apologize if the fighting was a bit clunky but I'll be sure to try and improve as this story goes on. Anyways, till next time.**

**Just like DE and its hotfixes some 15 minutes after an update, I'm here updating the chapter with corrections and adding description. This is what I get for uploading with haste after finishing a chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3: Downtime

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Ch. 3

* * *

Ivara dove forward, her lithe form just avoiding a barrage of missiles. The Warframe vaulted onto a raised platform, taking higher ground and slinking into the darkness of a metal pillar, contemplating her next moves. _"Liches; they suddenly appeared across the Origin System, taking upon themselves the abilities of the Warframe that killed their Larva forms. Arrogant creatures, they've been terrorizing colonies with their overwhelming power._"

Upon hearing the recognizable clicking of an Ogris's central missile chamber, the Tenno turned their full attention back to the battle at hand. The Operator within the frame of war then took notice of the steam coming out of Ivara's skeletal 'mouth' and surface of its body, taking note of the drastic drop in temperature. "...The Lich must be getting cocky after forcing me to revitalize Ivara twice. If they were sound of mind, they'd wait for backup and take me on in some place cramped..."

The grating sound of metal on metal heralded the appearance of an armored figure. It was apparent from a single glance that this figure had seen better days. They were battered, bullet holes and dents maring the worn out surface of their Ferrite Armor. The hulking armored humanoid walked with a limp gait, the reason being one of their prosthetic legs having been reduced to a crude pegleg.

Standing in the yellow light of the hologram of Europa, the figure revealed itself. Donning an armor consisting of greys and blacks along with a standard issue Grineer Marine helmet that obscured their entire head, the Kuva Lich held its Kuva Ogris at the ready. A single exposed crimson eye surveyed the circular portion of their Galleon's navigation room.

A heavily modulated female voice spoke into the darkness, "Reveal yourself, adversary. I know you have yet to slip from my cold grasp just yet." Anger bled out in the latter end of her statement. Tightening a free hand, the creaking and snapping of ice heralded an attack.

A wave of ice covered the pillars before her, her outstretched hand continuing to move around, coating her surroundings in a thick layer of ice. A growl was audible to Ivara's audio receptors as she looked down from the top of a pillar, down at both the Kuva Lich and her frozen surroundings. The string of a bow was drawn tight, energy coalescing in the arrow's tip as Ivara took aim at the Lich's head.

It was in that instant that said Lich jerked her head upwards, a gauntleted hand raised in defense and emitting a light blue glow. Loosing the arrow, Ivara leapt away from her perch. A blast of pure ice grazed the Warframe's left shoulder, the burning sensation of such cold temperatures dulled somewhat with the padding of both her shields and her shoulder mounted quiver.

A scrape was all that was needed for the single arrow Ivara shot to detonate. The Lich stumbled and howled in pain, the already compromised helmet giving out. The scorched face mask fell away, revealing its owner's warped face. The Tenno was upon the Lich in an instant, the glint of the huntress's Parazon catching the Lich's eyes.

The Lich panicked, "GET AWAY!" Bracing her weapon against its chest, the Lich fired a missile at the ground, the approaching Ivara knocked backwards from the force of the explosion.

Righting herself, Ivara dove back into the shadows as the slightly disoriented Lich murmured to herself, "Dammit! Even after my completion… Reinforcements... I request reinforcements!"

_"Hmph. Where has that bravado gone, Lich?"_ The Operator mused. Granted, this Lich, unlike the countless others he and his Tenno compatriots took down, were more akin to wandering warlords compared to this one. This one, unlike the others, was defensive. The Grineer Queen's Kuva Guardians probably chose her for Lich-hood for her innately cowardly nature preserving this ship's wellbeing.

The reason for this strange defensive Lich? It was because the true objective of this solo operation was to cut off the 'serpent's head', for this Galleon was one of a few recovery units that birthed Kuva Liches onto the field from Kuva Larva. If he could, at the very least, steal the data on the technology to manufacture these Liches, his Tenno compatriots could reverse engineer the data and make it much easier to take these resurrecting clones down in a more efficient manner. It had taken months to track one of these elusive ships down and then some to collect enough information on this Lich's Requiems and weaknesses.

Taking himself back into the present, in the shadows, the Huntress made her move. _"I've already exterminated all nearby Marines; it'll take probably 3 minutes for reinforcements to arrive. I best take her down now"._ Plasma fire from a Battacor came from the shadows, its Tenno wielder moving rapidly from cover to cover, shadow to shadow. The Lich's composure broke, panic firing into the shadows that seemed to close in on her position, the holographic display behind her acting as her sole light.

"I WON'T FALL TO YOUR TRICKERY, DEMON!" She grunted after making the exclamation, some plasma rounds splashing over her armor. Probably due to her lack of field combat exposure, this Lich was as vulnerable as any other Grineer unit to the effects of Corrosive damage. As the Lich began to scramble to reload, Zakti pellets bore themselves into the surface of her armor, toxic and magnetic gas leaking out and scrambling the personal shield emitters spread underneath the Lich's armor.

A spinning Glaive flew out from the shadows, remote detonation knocking out the Kuva Ogris out of the Lich's hands. In this vulnerable state, Ivara charged forward again. Green monoeye met panicked crimson as three strikes were made in quick succession on the Lich's Kuva module.

**KHRA.**

**NETRA.**

**VOME.**

Taking a knee, the Lich stared in horror at her executioner. The Parazon homed in on the Kuva Module -but- at the last second, the Lich's hands latched onto Ivara's wrist. The Tenno didn't expect this as the Lich mustered what little energy remained in its disrupted Kuva Module core. "I won't die. I won't go back into the darkness..!"

Ice crept up Ivara's arm and over her body before the Lich wrestled the Warframe and picked her form in its hands. Immobilized, the Warframe silently took the proceeding back break from the Lich, the Parazon slipping away from the Warframe's grasp.

The Lich panted, "I… I did it…" there was still an air of caution present on the Lich, "I need to retreat, get the marines to dispose of this Tenno."

**UNAIRU**

A gale made up of Void blasted straight into the Lich, causing her to stumble. More strikes continued as the Lich's damaged leg coupled with the strikes from her invisible attacker toppled her onto her back. "W-what!?"

The invisible attacker knocked the Lich's Kuva Ogris out of her reach in its barrage. Metal creaked and groaned as the Lich tried to get up only to see its prosthetic limbs and sections of its armor becoming petrified, falling in clumps of dust and stone. "What is this…?!"

The force circled around, quickly passing the frozen, broken form of Ivara and tackling the still stunned Lich. Before the Lich's eyes manifested an armored teen that straddled the Kuva empowered Grineer's waist, Parazon in hand. That normally wrist mounted blade found its target, this time the Lich's limbs crumbling to dust when trying to block the fatal strike, their structure compromised from the barrage of Sundering Dashes petrifying their inorganic bits.

A blood curdling scream echoed through the battle scarred room.

The comparatively small form of the Tenno Operator rifled through the expired Lich's belongings, finding a data key and standing up. Decked out in full Haztech armor and the helmet obscuring the Operator's entire head, the teen spoke on a private channel, "Ordis, the key has been secured. The Lich, dead."

The Ship Cephalon promptly responded, "Excellent work, Operator. I am sending the location of the Kuva Lich chamber... now"

Taking note of the distance and path, the Tenno approached Ivara's broken form. The Operator's hands glowed, ice melting away and Void energy flowing into the frame's body. Plates of armor fixed itself back in place and when all was realigned, the Operator's form melted into Ivara's.

A surge of Void energies burst from the huntress's form before getting up. Flexing muscles, the healing power of the Void restored Ivara's Carrier Prime back to working function. Setting her body, the huntress listened and discerned the approaching footsteps of distant Grineer marines. As befitting of Ivara's title, the stealth based Warframe slinked into the shadows and made its way to the objective location.

* * *

Vats of Kuva were before the Huntress Warframe _"This is it."_ Sticking the data key into the computer module, the Tenno brandished its Parazon and began hacking.

It was after breaching all locks did a voice- Ordis's- alerted the Tenno, "Operator, a large object is approaching, it's… it's the Kuva Fortress!"

_"What?!"_ Jerking the Parazon out and beaming whatever information gathered on the Lich creation process back to his Orbiter, the Tenno heard a broadcast, the childish voice recognizable "I've finally found you, disgusting, murderous little kur! Oh... I'll finally avenge you, sister… Guardians, marines, I command you to destroy the child's puppet and bring the orphan's broken body to me at once!"

"Tch!" Ivara's body tensed up, already prepping itself for a fight.

Ordis's voice hurried the Tenno, "I've located an extraction point, the Queen's forces are closing in on the Galleon, their numbers are something I doubt even a full squad of Tenno are capable of handling! **-r**U**N!-**"

* * *

The run to extraction was a frantic, taxing, and brutal dash that saw many Grineer maimed and Ordis actively breaking in and hacking into the Kuva Galleon's systems, opening faster routes towards extraction. Still, even when the Liset docked with the Orbiter and Ordis made preparations to Void cloak the ship, Ivara was sent stumbling.

Pulling up the ship's status and looking back outside through the Liset's window, the Tenno could see a pair of chains from the Galleon impaled in the sides and back of the Orbiter "Operator-" "I know" cut the Tenno. Before Ivara could make a move however, she was sent flying into the Orbiter's main hall.

Shrapnel tore through the already damaged Warframe's body. The Operator manifested beside the downed Huntress, feeling both the vacuum produced by the Liset's breach and the heat from a far too damaged Warframe.

Seeing a black figure come out from the deeper recesses of the Orbiter, the Operator called out, "Umbra, get the Imperator Vandal!" the identified Warframe nodded, going back inside as the Operator did a check on Ivara.

_"Too much heat and damage. She'll have to be repaired in the Helminth Chamber if I want to use her again."_ The Operator's head tilted up towards the approaching form of Excalibur Umbra, who brandished the requested Archgun. Taking Umbra's outstretched hand, the Operator faded into Umbra's body.

Feeling the Transference Link connect, the Tenno stood its ground as a second explosion blasted a larger hole into the docked Liset. Umbra noticed the Lich's Kuva Ogris he recovered flying out into the vacuum of space as he walked into the Liset. _"Oh well."_

"Operator, what are you doing?!"

The Tenno answered his Cephalon, "Freeing the ship."

Briefly taking in the vastness of space, the Warframe took aim and started firing. The metal of the chains began to wear down. The Cephalon's voice came over the comms once more, "Operator, we've been locked on by the Kuva Fortress! Please come back inside, it's too late! I've already prepped a Landing Craft for launch! Your life takes precedent!"

The Tenno was blunt as he continued to fire, "Sorry, I can't. You and the other Tenno are all I have. Besides, there is still a chance we can make it out of this." Umbra was sent stumbling as a missile of the same yield as those that broke the Liset's canopy impacted the Orbiter's side. More impacts came as Grineer fighters reached the Tenno ship, taking potshots at the non combat vessel. Righting himself, the Warframe continued to fire.

A chain snapped, the Operator smiled _"one more to go"_ It was as the last one was worn down, that a series of lights streaking from the Kuva Fortress came barreling towards the still stuck Orbiter. The Grineer fighters pulled away.

Grey eyes widened, _"So… this is how it ends…"_

White lightning crackled through the void of space. The Kuva Fortress's payload was sent careening off course or prematurely detonated from direct contact with the lightning. _"That light, a fissure?"_

A crack opened, Void energies flowing out and around. Turning back to the dire situation, Umbra tried to fire his Archgun, a series of clicks heard, "I'm out?!"

The Warframe's head turned, "Ordis, fire the Orbiter's engines, we're making a jump into the Void fissure!"

The ship Cephalon hesitantly asked, "Are you sure about this, Operator?"

"It's our only shot!"

"Alright... I recommend holding onto something, Operator."

Umbra's ebony hand clasped onto a still intact portion of the Liset as the Orbiter rumbled, speeding and notably dragging the Grineer Galleon with it into the Void. The Operator heard the Worm Queen scream over the radio, but he didn't catch what she said. Instead, his attention was drawn towards the serene form of the Operator's doppelganger, who sat some ways to Umbra's left and seemed to look at the Tenno with a Cheshire smile behind its helmet-clad face.

The Operator couldn't dwell on this, as a blinding light forced Umbra to turn away and the Operator to shut his eyes. When the light faded away, the Tenno saw quickly approaching white ground, then darkness.

* * *

Eyes, glowing grey, fluttered open. That gaze met the frozen wasteland outside as he sat up from the lone couch in his personal quarters. "_Right, I had taken down this entire base on my own yesterday."_ Doing a few stretches, he got up. _"According to the memories I stole and Ordis, this planet is Earth."_ The magnetic fields, atmosphere composition, and the like matching up perfectly.

Feeling up his form of dress, the medical gown, the Tenno thought of a better form of dress. After settling on a general idea, he began moving and walked to the base of the Vignette. Feeling around for a second, a hidden compartment opened up. Taking out some clothes, he resealed the compartment with clothes in hand. Walking back to the couch and setting the clothes down the Tenno began to strip. As he did so, a teenage boy stared back at him. It was a face with a square chin framed by a square jaw with thin lips. Above it a Roman nose and adjacent to the nose were a pair of round eyes that glowed with a dark grey energy. All of these features framed by unruly black hair long enough that it covered the tops of his ears. The teenage boy was the Tenno himself, his reflection projected onto the observatory window.

Staring the reflection down, he began to trace the scar lines of surgical incisions. The scars would go away like all the bullet wounds, slashes, and burn marks that reached his body but the appearance of them spoke of experimentation at the hands of the probable Corpus offshoot, Sumeragi. After breaking eye contact with the reflection, he began to put on the clothes he had lined up on the couch. Putting on a spare undersuit, the youth began to layer clothes onto his lean form. Technologies developed for modern, modular armor carried over into clothing. Clothes were separated into segments that were able to connect onto one another seamlessly but this required the usage of skin tight fabrics layered on top of one another. The process of putting on such clothes was troublesome at first but after doing it enough times, it only took a Tenno a good 5 minutes to get everything in place.

With all articles of clothing aligned, the suit he had donned formed an ensemble consisting of the rugged but still sleek form of Manduka Sleeves, the minimally armored Haztech Curaiss, the lightly armored Haztech Greaves, and finally, wrapped around his neck was the Umbra hood scarf. It was a set of fabrics once worn by Umbra as ceremonial garb during his time as a Dax. The ensemble glowed a warm orange glow, much of the suit's under layers being primarily black with the outer layers being a series of dark and light greys. Finding the look satisfying he picked up the medical gown, folded it, and threw it onto a Canopic Jar displayed in a corner of his quarters. The Tenno promptly left the room.

A stomach grumbled in protest. One of the boxes that was retrieved from the base held some rations. After opening one and finishing his meal, the spoke aloud, "Hey Ordis, can you deploy the extractors again today to gather more material to use?" When the ship Cephalon responded with an affirmative, the black haired teen followed up, "Also I'll also be taking Umbra with me to do a personal sweep through the bases for supplies." Allowing Ordis to soak in that information, the Tenno continued, "Oh and what of the repairs and communication?"

Ordis's voice responded, echoing a little through the Orbiter, "The repairs are coming along fine and I estimate that it'll take 4 more days before we can achieve flight and finish repairs to the camo systems. We are also not receiving any signals as of yet, this place on Earth is a deadzone when it comes to communication and there is some sort of Void based interference in the area, in all likelihood caused by the fissure that brought us here."

Allowing the information to stew in his mind, the teen began moving from his previously seated position to out the door. "Good luck Operator and please come back safe and sound from your excursion." Sweeping his hand in a near salute as a goodbye, the Tenno left the Orbiter.

As he felt the frigid air of the frozen wasteland blow on his face, grey eyes fell upon the snow crusted form of Umbra. He was colored a black color with white highlights along the arms and legs. The metallic bits being a gold color and the lights that adorned Umbra's body being a blue color. Umbra was watching as the small repair drones repaired the Liset. The landing craft was found within a hangar bay in West Command, the Liset's roof still having holes in it. It took a few repurposed tractor beam module parts from the other landing crafts stored in the Orbiter to drag the ruined ship out of the hangar and to a place next to the Orbiter.

During that same day the Operator had also burned all the bodies and body bits that he could find in both bases and retrieved the ruined form of Ivara from a metal container. It had been in the same room Umbra had broken out of. The frame was currently undergoing repairs in the Orbiter's Helminth room.

Though that day bore quite the amount of good, it was to the Tenno's disappointment that the materials retrieved by Extractors weren't capable of fixing the more sophisticated parts of the Orbiter, those requiring more exotic material to work with. _"It should matter little when we breach atmosphere, the repairs could be handled by the crews up in the Strata Relay."_

The crunch of snow caused Umbra to perk up, his faceless helmet looking towards his black haired partner. With a gesture towards East Command, the Warframe approached. After connecting using the process of transference, the duo began the trek to East Command.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**As of writing this on April 25th, 2020, I've revised his chapter to tie it in deeper with the rest of the story and future plot points (the latter especially). There will be some notable rearrangements of the next few chapters leading up to _Grande Divisor_ in terms of giving these early story portions some better pacing. As always, have a good day.**

**Oh before this note ends, if you notice, the Operator is meant to look like a certain someone from a game called Dark Sector.**


	4. Chapter 4: Revelations

**So Chapter 4. Took a while but college work and motivation keeps me from completing chapters. After this Chapter things will begin to pick up and the interaction between Gunvolt characters and Warframe characters can begin. Please not that since the Gunvolt games and drama CDs are few of the only things around that fleshes out the world, I will have to take some liberties with the Gunvolt world. Specifically daily life when GV is not working as a merc, at school in the daytime, or talking to Joule. Anyways, enjoy.**

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Ch. 4

Log 008

It has been a week ever since we uncovered the 2 alien carcasses from the wreckage. The first one recovered was frozen in ice. We have dubbed this carcass Subject 2. Mostly intact with prognosis stating that it died due to sheer blunt force trauma or freezing cold. None of this can be confirmed as the hide is too hard to penetrate with our tools. There is also some sort of shielding that regenerates around the body making our job a whole lot tougher. Its ebony body is humanoid, hypothesized to be well adjusted towards moving around under our own gravity although it is quite heavy. The various materials that compose its body are completely foreign. What little flesh we did manage to extract showed a peculiar, almost fungi like flesh. What was most fascinating (and morbid) were the traces of human DNA. Cross referencing the flesh between it and Subject 1, the maimed alien carcass found within the small ship, has shown that both have nearly identical flesh. Must be a species with heavy sexual dimorphism, if it is even a species. Some of the carapace seems far too patterned and perfect to be purely organic. Further autopsy is required, log over.

Log 010

It has been a day since attempt #3 to dissect the alien carcass. A most peculiar event occurred before attempt #4 at autopsy. A living, armored teenage boy materialized out of the body. Scanners utilized read an unknown energy radiated off the boy. Some of the workers (most of whom were the first ones to investigate Crash Site #2) became agitated when around the boy. Orders have been placed to have them research other subjects of interest from the crash sites.

Log 015

The boy has been heavily sedated and kept under. We have begun experimentation on the boy after it was found that he was alive. It's still unknown how both alien carcass and boy are connected. Slicing open the child has revealed a powerful regeneration ability. Before regeneration begins the body radiates more of the unknown energies before the wound closes. Though this form of healing is imperfect, scars from the cutting still being left behind though there are signs of them disappearing rapidly with time. Tests are being prepared to see how the body will react to chemicals. We have already collected samples of the child's tissue. The results will be available tomorrow. Log over.

Log 016

The results from the extracted tissue have shown a nearly 100% match to human DNA. So peculiar. It has also been readily apparent from the same report that his flesh and bone have been reinforced in multiple ways by this strange energy. Mentioning the strange energy, it has been made readily apparent that it is some form of radiation although the full effects are still unknown. Currently it seems to be benign, the times it has seeped into nearby material having shown no signs of malignant contamination. This is mere conjecture, but it seems as if the energies have an effect upon living people's psyche when exposed to copious amounts of it, observed in the personnel that came back from the initial crash site that radiated in massive doses this energy. The radiation has long since left the sight, dispersing into the Arctic air. Anyways, the energies have caused the tissue to be much more tough, the hardier material giving the child the building blocks of a powerful body if he developed more. On the subject of development, there is a strange phenomenon going on with the boy. His body has made it very evident that he is going through puberty though the progression has seemed to have slowed to a crawl. A most peculiar trait indeed. Log over.

Log 021

Brain patterns have shown that despite the heavy amount of drugs going through his body, the boy is beginning to come around. I have no doubt that it is due to both the hardiness of his body and the resilience granted by this radiation that we have deemed "Null" radiation. Though it has a varying number of physical properties the only absolutely volatile element of this radiation is to one's mental faculties with little to no physical evidence of brain tampering. Many of my colleagues are anxious about the child's inevitable awakening. I on the other hand welcome it. If he is agreeable to us, we can do more research. If he resists though, the security team is more than capable enough of detaining the boy and our research will still continue. There have been strange movements within Subject 2, the black alien humanoid Subject 3 originated from. His hands have shown a twitch. The alien will be locked inside of a several layered containment coffin. The same procedure will occur with Subject 1. Log over.

* * *

The Operator was in his room again. Extractor Drones had already scavenged all the scrap and other materials they could find. Materials found would be adequate enough for hull repairs, other than that the scrap was useless.

Thoughts on the repairs ceased, his attention finding its way back to the data tablet he had just finished reading. Setting it aside next to the ship's music player the Operator was in deep thought while lying at the feet of his personal quarter's couch. He found it strange. Even after a day after Ordis created a translation cipher, it was apparent that Sumeragi was detached completely from the Corpus. No Corpus script or even a passing mention of the Corpus themselves. The methods they utilized aligned with the Corpus: various experimentation, usage of mechanical proxies, and usage of laser weaponry but things just didn't add up.

Besides the lack of Corpus script and not even a mention of either two of the most powerful factions in the entire Sol System, this Sumeragi had also made no reference to anything outside the Earth. It was almost as if they didn't spread beyond the atmosphere which was impossible. The Grineer had long since dominated the Earth save for a few areas such as the Plains and the Infested forests. Sumeragi HAD to exist beyond the Earth lest they get stomped out like insects to the sheer numbers of the Grineer. Analysis by Ordis as well showed that their weaponry was in all ways primitive, even up against Grineer standards.

"_Looking back at it now, I don't even have a proper gauge of how strong their weaponry was; my skills, Umbra's physical capabilities, and general nimbleness made it so that we rarely got hit during those skirmishes a few days ago and even then Umbra didn't feel any laceration from the various attacks at all."_

Such thoughts then drifted towards when he first woke up and the bullet he took to the shoulder.

"_If it were a Cestra, Marelok, Kraken, or even a Viper the bullet would've gone through and torn off a chunk of my shoulder. Probably even lacerated my arm and caused excessive bleeding. But that pistol used by the soldier... all it did was get lodged into my shoulder and not deal that much bodily damage."_

Ordis's peppy voice rang through the intercom "Operator, the ship has finished repairs; ready to launch at your command!"

Getting up and waiting for the black blots in his vision to fade away, he made his way out of his personal quarters.

* * *

Standing beside the Warframe customization and armaments kiosk stood the ever so vigilant Umbra. His posture was ramrod straight, his signature Skiajati holstered to his hip. The faceless surface of his helm gazed at the Operator as they passed by, his gaze holding a warmth to them that the Operator could feel through their transference bond. Allowing a small smile to grace his lips, the Tenno walked up towards the newly repaired Bridge of his Orbiter.

"Ordis, I am ready for launch," spoke black haired youth. "Acknowledged, Operator. Beginning launch."

There was a slight rock the ship before the ground stabilized. A cursory glance to the Liset's window showing the rapidly growing distant ground being the only evidence that the ship had begun take off. Anti gravity engines hummed with a powerful and soothing sound as the massive Orbiter floated nearly static twelve meters above ground before suddenly disappearing from view, it having launched itself in an instant and quickly exiting Earth and into space.

* * *

...

...

...

...

...

He was expecting to see Grineer Galleons floating above the surface of Earth. It had to be Earth due to the gravitational readings and placement of the stars and planets as observed by Ordis. He was expecting to see the Strata Relay and after leaving the signal dead Arctic hearing the voice of Nora Night and various other transmissions, Grineer and Corpus alike. But there was nothing. No Strata Relay, no massive Grineer Galleons, and no transmissions. "_No… no…NO!" _

I found my breath becoming rather short. I was panicking. This must be some kind of sick joke right? I had my suspicions after reading through all the data logs but the image of a very much intact Earth whose wildlife wasn't resurrected via Infestation seemed to taunt me.

Dammit… DAMMIT! This just confirms that the Void had dumped me into some alternate world. The ship's engines are still severely damaged. It can't perform Void jumps. The materials required are just too exotic especially with this version of Earth. I'm stranded…

Ordis's voice cut through my thoughts, "Operator… I can only admit that I had known about… our situation since I rebooted after the crash. After I scanned the nearby area and dating the ground around us, I found that it was much younger than our own world's. After my scans didn't turn up your life signs I-"

"You were going to go into a permanent hibernation state weren't you?" I found my voice more stable than what I was feeling inside.

"... Yes, Operator. I was. This Cephalon felt so much joy after you came back and turned up alive. But in this present situation… I am lost as to what to do. We are lacking in materials required to fully repair storage systems, engines, and landing crafts. Even if we repaired all of these components there has been no recorded case of interdimensional travel other than Orokin era hypothesis regarding the whereabouts of vanished towers and ships."

After a pause Ordis continued but I no longer listened. My breathing had stabilized and there being a noticeable unsteadiness in my legs I turned towards the vast expanse of space. It just seemed so empty now. This alternate world that is so behind the technology of my home. There were no enemies to fight now and no purpose to pledge myself to. What will happen to the rest of my brethren? I was the only one with the Paracesis and the Sentients are gearing up to invade the Sol System. I-

"The only thing that I think we can do is hiding ourselves away and going into hibernation and wait for someone from our Sol System to appear and pick us up. There isn't any scenario in my calculations in where we can reasonably-" "No" There was silence within the Orbiter. That voice was my own. My ship Cephalon's voice responded "But Operator there-" my voice cut him off again, "I refuse to give up. I can't give up. I still am the only one with the Paracesis. They need help against the Sentients. I...I CAN'T GIVE UP!" A period of silence on the ship pervaded, only the sound of my breathing could be heard.

I felt a hand on my shoulder as I looked back at the familiar visage of Umbra. His touch was comforting. My gaze turning towards the ship console. "For now, Ordis, I think we should just repair the entirety of the ship. If the Void dumped us here then I'm sure that we can use the Void again to get back to our world." Getting onto my two feet a list of objectives began to take form. "We'll have to raid the local supplies and gather raw material. For any exotic materials like Argon Crystals, we'll just have to make them ourselves; perform our own research and production."

"I...I understand, my Operator." With that response, we began to discuss and formulate a course of action. Despite my grandstanding, there was still a feeling of uncertainty in me but no matter what, I couldn't just sit down and give up. As I discussed objectives with Ordis, I made it a pointed effort to ignore the smiling doppelganger that seated itself in the corner of my vision.

* * *

5 Weeks Later; Location: Unknown

* * *

The sound of footsteps on polished, ceramic granite tiles announced the approach of a young man in military uniform. Within his arms carried a data pad and a small stack of notes. His was face was evidently youthful, but his disposition spoke otherwise. Speaking of a character containing the sternness and wisdom of adulthood. His image was only slightly marred by a scar going down his left eye.

Before the officer was an expansive office that overlooked a city skyline, the view magnificent. "Nova, sir. The reports from the Arctic investigation crew have arrived. They found that the expedition crew and their base completely decimated." There was a pause for his superior to process the information.

The shadowed figure identified as Nova, responded. His voice young but near deathly calm. "Hoh? Please continue Colonel Jota. What exactly befell the expedition crew?"

The now identified Jota responded, "The investigation crew found that all of the remains of the expedition crew were incinerated, what little remained of them only showing with certainty that some had been cut into by what seems to be a sword or some other bladed weapon. Due to the state that they were in, we can only hypothesize that some had been killed by firearms. The base had also been stripped of nearly all of its resources. Almost all equipment was missing, the few that were found had been reduced to a state beyond salvage. More details are in the files I am carrying right now." After a breath, the Colonel continued, "The servers on the base had also been either completely destroyed or missing. What could be salvaged of the servers revealed that all data within had also been completely scrubbed. Evidence indicates that any physical documents that had existed has also been incinerated."

"Hmmm, so whoever had done this had thoroughly scrubbed the entire base of everything. Tell me, Jota, was there anything else that could put a face to this hostile unknown?" After a moment Jota moved forward, laying upon Nova's desk the files and data pad. Pushing aside the files and allowing the data pad to be right and center, the data pad was turned on to the image of a black figure on a runway of ice.

"The only data we could salvage was from a single camera positioned to observe the base's helicopter runway. My apologies for being unable to gain a better image but it's the only thing that we could salvage from the base." With his piece done, Jota took a step back, observing Nova's features.

Taking the data pad into his hands Nova's gaze focused upon the black figure. It was definitely humanoid though its image was blurred. It was apparent that it knew the art of warfare, carrying in its hands as naturally as a Sumeragi soldier a standard, Sumeragi issue MB4 Beam Rifle. The unknown donned a scarf that camouflage with its body and even from a low quality camera it was apparent that the figure was not a human. Its masculine body covered by a sort of skin tight, chitinous armor sewn too tight and form fitting to be worn by a human. It's gait was that of a typical soldier.

Nova's ears perked slightly, responding to Jota's voice as the Colonel began again his report "There was some evidence that what the expedition crew had been investigating came from a high place. The sight that the base had centered around being a crater. I would like to add that there has been a noticeable spike in raids and Adept unrest within foreign countries in the past 4 weeks. Some of the investigation crew has theorized that whatever had decimated our men stationed in the Arctic having moved onto other countries. Though I am not completely sold on the idea as there isn't enough evidence."

Nova turned his seat, halfway facing the skyline in contemplation. "Interesting…" his gaze never having left the data pad.

"_What exactly are you?"_

**Author's Note**

**So... I'm sort of peeved by the fact that GV loading screens don't give info on the loadouts of the common enemies we fight thus I had to make my own liberties in naming the equipment Sumeragi soldiers are armed with. The rifle name is based off the Japanese special forces standard issue M4 Carbine. I added a B to denote it being a beam type weapon. Anyways, as always please write critiques on what I can do to improve my writing. I need some feedback on if I'm nailing my characters right as it all still feels awkward for me plus dialogue isn't exactly my strong point as I think I've mentioned before. Well, till next time.**

**Well I forgot to add 2 things to this author's note. For one, Jota is in the same boat as the beam rifle as to my knowledge Jota's rank is never stated in any drama CD or in any of the games thus I stuck him with the Colonel ranking as an in between commander rank in the military. The second is that I know that Dark Sector and Warframe do not exist on the same timeline. I made the Operator an EXPY of Hayden Tenno because I find it easier for me and for readers to have a preexisting face as a frame of reference. Also the Operator will be using Excal Umbra mostly so I find him being an expy of Hayden to be fitting. Now with that sorted, have a good day.**

**Alright, as of writing this, I have completed Chapter 5 of this fanfiction. I'm holding off on uploading it as I am still in the process of making chapter 6. The reason for this is because I do not want to "tickle your balls" with a world building chapter and not give some story progression. Thus when Chapter 5 is uploaded, Chapter 6 will follow immediately. There have also been some minor changes and add ons to this fanfiction in previous chapters so if you want to catch everything, then you can reread. The single change I made to this chapter was adding a bit with Man in the Wall as a part of Chapter 5 requires this small set up. **


	5. Chapter 5: Prelude to Facility Depths

**well, 5th Chapter. mostly an info dump chapter to establish the pace with which the Operator will be able to reclaim usage of his equipment. Also there wasn't anything being built in the foundry when the incident with Nef Anyo occurred. Without further ado, Chapter 5**

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

A security guard donning a cap and bullet proof vest grumbled as he briskly walked past multiple shipment crates that stacked 4 stories on both of his sides.

He had a call just as he was leaving his shift for home about a fellow guard who failed to report in an hour ago, one Ron Park. The security guard shook his head, "lazy fuck must be sleeping on the job". Thoughts on bullying the chubby ginger shot up to the forefront of his head and gave him a small smile as he endured the night chill.

He tugged a bit at his vest, the light protective garb being a little too tight. As he readjusted the garb, he internally cursed the uprising 'Adepts' that caused enough discord to necessitate even a simple security guard to wear such gear.

It was as he rounded a corner that he spotted a pool of… something. The liquid came from somewhere out of sight. What little lighting that was present in the dimly lit docks only gave the tell that the puddle was a liquid. "It hasn't rained in a month and we're far too inland for seawater to make its way here…" Unhooking a flashlight from his belt, the guard flashed a light.

Crimson; blood.

The guard's eyes widened as his free right hand went to his belt, hand on his pistol. It was as he turned around the corner did he see the corpse that was his fellow night guard. Back pinned to a metal crate, the chubby man's eyes were frozen in a wide, dead stare. Needle like protrusions were stuck into him in a straight vertical line that went from his face and down to his crotch. Blood pooled down from the crate wall and down onto the slightly sloped ground.

Right hand went from his hip to his walkie talkie. Upon pressing a button, all the guard heard was static that caused him to flinch. "The hell?!" He found that he couldn't contact any line. It was as scenarios of what went down and how to proceed ran through his head that he heard a splash in the distance. Finally pulling his gun and pinning his flashlight onto his uniform's left shoulder, the guard went into a run as he traced the sound of the splash to the edge of the dock.

He stopped at the edge, a portion of the visible dark sea foaming like a bubbling cauldron. A few minutes afterwards communication was restored and a squad of Sumeragi private soldiers was dispatched. The needle-like projectiles that had pinned poor Ron to a metal crate evaporated on touch. In the morning it was found that a crates worth of miscellaneous material was stolen from various sections of the dock. "Almost as if the infiltrator was taking a sample out of a supermarket" was what one investigator said.

With no leads and the murder weapons evaporating, Sumeragi, who owned the dock, ruled the crime to be Adept related, specifically connecting it to one of the Adept centric organizations of 'QUILL' or 'Eden'. Such a conclusion was further reinforced as communications with other storage facilities all around the globe reported 2 other similar crimes, though the chronologically first incident resulted in a lot more bloodshed with 14 personnel killed in contrast to 3 in the second raided facility and now the single guard in this dock incident.

* * *

A call rang for a few moments. Nova checked the caller ID, his usually cool and relaxed demeanor tightened in a business man's poke face as he answered the phone.

Taking on a lax manner, the boy spoke, "Prime Minister?"

A gruff voice, aged from decades of stress and politics, responded, "Tsukuyomi"

"Is there anything you need of me?"

"Straight to the point as always and yes, I do."

Nova could almost see the crinkle of the politician's brow as the Prime Minister spoke, "I am asking you to assemble a team of combat ready Adepts. I know we have the 'rising star' in Jota and your mighty strength, but recent events have caused… many in the 'board' to be worried of the destabilization overtaking the rest of the world and its potential to spread past the Boundary and into Japan."

"So that's it. All of the recent attacks on rival and allied corporations have them worried."

"... Yes. I along with the others in the 'board' would like some assurance as to the security of this country. Especially after the completion of the 'Swordsmith' project."

Nova cringed a bit at the memory of the 'swords' draining touch before responding to his superior, "It will take some time to assemble such a taskforce on short notice but I do have some ideas on who to recruit already."

"Excellent. At the next meeting notify the 'board' on your progress."

With that, the line ended. Nova sighed as he laid back. With a moment's respite, the boy turned his attention back to his computer monitor, making a few clicks and typing a password. A window opened with a list of Adepts. At the top of the list were a red headed punk and a dark skinned, blonde in a keikogi.

* * *

A week later

* * *

The apple cinnamon ration bar was chased down the Tenno's throat with a gulp of water. Letting out a sigh, he refocused on the data pad before him. On its screen were Sumeragi shipment routes all stemming from various quarry sites.

Admittedly, there were holes in the gathered data but when one was lacking in the massive information network the Tenno had built in the Sol System. _At the very least with Ivara repaired I didn't have dirty my hands with more blood._ The Tenno internally cringed as he recalled the few openings days in his infiltration missions. When he wiped out that Arctic base it was with pre existing notions that the people there were like the brainwashed Corpus meat puppets he regularly fought in the Origin System. The soldiers he fought were real, thinking people. Now, with the stealth focused Warframe repaired he didn't have to kill as many as he did with Umbra.

That single difference in statistics was such a relief to the Operator. All of the resources he had raided thus far were useless for what he needed. He had little issue when it came to taking the lives of others but at the very least the prize for doing so had to be worth it. With his enemies being actual humans it would be excessively cruel and needless massacring them in large swathes. Plus killing so many people would bring much more attention to him. Already, Sumeragi and other major corporations were tightening their security from his raids.

On the topic of resources, the Orbiter was pretty much repaired for space and atmospheric flight. The hull was pristine and most internal systems were repaired. The more exotic parts of the ship though required equally if not more exotic resources for complete repairs. The Void Engines that allowed for interplanetary travel were still non functional and he still had no access to his Warframe and weapon storage. Much of the materials required were common… in the Sol System. The durable metals and wiring found on this instance of Earth simply weren't durable enough to withstand what was required out of the Void powered system.

What was top priority currently was repairing the storage systems. Despite the size of the Orbiter, much of its size is devoted to being hangars for the different Landing Crafts besides the Liset. The entire barracks worth of weapons and Warframes were stored in a hammer space system akin to the one that all Warframes are equipped with. Damage accumulated during the Worm Queen's surprise attack caused the circuitry to warp, resulting in a very precarious situation. Due to its basis in the Void, if enough damage were to be done the system the hammer space would suffer a Void collapse, destroying everything that was inside. In its present state, the storage containers' Void space hasn't collapsed but as is the Tenno couldn't extract the items. Present circumstances were dire, Ordis stating that if he were to attempt to perform repairs with the warped circuits, he'd be more likely to cause further damage and destroy the hammer space.

The one proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel' lay in the hints of extremely rare materials that could be used as substitutes to build the components needed to repair the storage and engine systems. Issue was how tightly under wraps all data on such resources were. These materials were the Operator and Cephalon's best bet at repairing their ship. Another roadblock on the gathering of such materials was how all of these resources were locked in maximum security refineries on the island nation of Japan.

What was so troubling about the location was the fact that Japan was the most advanced nation on this parallel Earth, and due to the various wars and social upheavals caused by the emergence of a group of so-called psychics called 'Adepts' the entire nation was on effective lock-down.

According to sources, Adepts are people who have achieved the 7th level of the Lifewave. Lifewave itself is some sort of energy that binds all living beings together. Sources written state that there are 6 total levels with the vast majority living with either the 1st or 3rd level of Lifewave. Adepts distinguish themselves from all 6 levels with displays of superhuman powers that defy the laws of physics. The Tenno was skeptical of this system's validity. Though there are rumors of an entire town swallowed by a glacier spawned by an Adept and other similar stories, most cases found Adepts to only display minor and weak abilities. Confidently, the Operator assured himself that they wouldn't be an issue if he encountered them in combat.

Digressing, Japan has used its technology to effectively wall itself off from the rest of the world. The manifestation of their accumulated technologies being the Final National Defense Boundary, christened the "Kamishiro". It's a nation spanning forcefield that limits both immigration and emigration into and out of Japan. The limits of the Kamishiro were unknown to the Tenno but from reports on attempted attacks on the nation, it seemed to be a close equivalent to the shield that protected Cetus and the Unum from Grineer attack. An entire ocean bed of sunken ships was a testament to its effectiveness. As of current, Ordis was working on fabricating false immigrant identification papers for the Operator to slip into the nation, much to the Cephalon's protests on such a plan.

Although confident in his ability to take down an army of proxies and soldiers, the Operator was a single Tenno. What made the ancient warrior caste so effective was due to the sheer number of them working slash and run operations in tandem with one another using information gained from a Sol System spanning spy network. It would not do to have the forces of a multi conglomerate corporation that has firm control over an entire country to bear down on the lone Tenno Operative. There were also too many unknowns. The branches of Sumeragi kept much of its scientific progress a secret unless they were jointly researching and manufacturing machinery with another company. The Tenno would have to keep his head down low as sheer quantity in this scenario had a very real chance of overwhelming quality.

With such an accumulation of factors the Tenno found himself sitting in his personal quarters, legs curled up almost to his chest as he observed the movements of Sumeragi shipments. Normally, Ordis would handle this type of information parsing but he was currently busy maintaining cover for the Orbiter's existence both in the digital and physical world as he fed live data into the tablet the Operator was holding in his hands. As of currently, the alien transport ship was deep underwater near a place called the Marianas Trench. After the sudden attack by the Kuva Fortress itself, the Cephalon was justifiably paranoid about similar such enemy operations.

Taking a moment to rest his eyes, the Tenno stared into the watery abyss behind his quarter's window. "Operator, you need to rest. Just because you can stay up approximately 48 hours at a time doesn't mean you should regularly do so." quipped Ordis. Flashes of sleepless nights plagued by dreams of a spine chilling doppelganger, the laughter of the Grineer Queens, the macabre scenes from his adolescence spent within the Zahriman, and a misunderstood child all played before the Tenno's inner eye. "I was just a stupid kid back then…" Closing his eyes, the Operator recalled how his working till exhaustion was the only way to give himself peaceful sleep ever since he accepted that mission from the Red Veil.

Forcing a facade of wakefulness, the youth refused, "No Ordis. I can't, won't. I'm still quite full of energy, you see? As I am now I don't need sleep whatsoever!"

Resigned, the Cephalon responded, "If… If you say so Operator… I can't force you to rest." The tone spoke of many of time this conversation occurring. With his personality, it was only natural that Ordis folded under the Operator's steadfast refusal.

Refocusing his tired eyes and pointing his gaze at his tablet, the Operator saw that one of the Sumeragi transports stopped at a facility inside of South America, specifically in Brazil. The weariness he had hid from Ordis left him immediately as he comprehended what just happened on the screen. The transport then left back to the quarry from which it started its journey from. This vulnerable site was in need of further investigation. With little hesitation, the Operator called for his ever loyal Cephalon.

* * *

It was after a month of passively watching the shipping movements then a more thorough investigation of any preexisting information on the Internet was it confirmed that it was one of the handful of sites outside of Japan that Sumeragi had kept topped up in supplies, among the list a few exotic terms never before seen on preexisting data heists. Its name was the Sumeragi Grande Divisor. The question now was why they were maintaining it in such a way. It was that question that the black haired Operator had deployed as Ivara to find out.

Currently he lay, magnetically latched inside of the passenger compartment of the Liset as it swam through miles of water. Idly, the Operator checked his inventory of weapons. In this Operation he was armed with the Zakti and his Glaive, secondary and melee respectively. For his primary, the boy had elected to not bring his Battacor with him. Better that he didn't use his full arsenal, as small as it was, due to the phase he had observed the parallel humanity to be in. The spread of information was hard to contain unless it was stopped right at the source at the moment of its attainment. Within the confines of a single planet and the existence of what Ordis called "an ancient, third rate data weave" information simply spread far too quickly for the Operator's liking. Unlike the Zakti and its gas pellets, the Battacor left behind irradiated scorch marks that didn't diffuse very easily. With the ingenuity of the Corpus in taking the barest of scraps and creating new, deadlier technology, it was a precautionary measure for the Operator to bring with him a different primary weapon. This new gun he was bringing with him was one cobbled together from various spare parts in his supply runs. This Franken-steined weapon was called the IFBM Beam Rifle

Unlike its basis, the BM4 Beam Rifle, it is a gun capable of switching from semi and automatic fire modes with a grenade launcher slung under its barrel. The basis of its internal systems were built off of preexisting data on the Zenith and Supra Vandal, the grenade launcher system being based off of data on the Corinth. Due to how the beam rifle was initially constructed, the automatic fire form has a penchant of overheating if its automatic fire was held for too long. Past his armaments, the repaired Carrier Prime was to act as the Tenno's support with keeping his weapons topped off in ammunition. As a measure to prevent unnecessary conflict, the Sentinel was left weaponless.

With his inventory checked, the Operator began to review the mission data Ordis had compiled.

Due to how inland the Grande Divisor is, it was prudent that he be dropped near the shoreline then travel inland through the local living spaces then into the facility. The objectives of the mission was to gather data from the complex's central servers. Ideally, Ivara was to also steal any sort of foreign raw material for further analysis. A number of possibilities would open up if the youth was successful in his mission.

The facility itself is a multi floored complex that rises 70 floors above surface with 10 additional floors underground. The 70 floors act mainly as offices but its true importance lies in the height of the complex and the military soldiers stationed at the building, acting as a sort of symbol that separated the poor districts from the rich. External sources of the building indicates that the servers are located within the basement levels of the skyscraper. His target were those mentioned data servers. Like a number of missions within his home system, as a side objective the Tenno was allowed to deviate and search for rich supply caches when possible.

The only obstacles were the Sumeragi forces stationed at the location. They all lived in multi floored buildings that were connected to the tower. A good chunk of the buildings seem to be hangars, no doubt storing plenty of proxies and various other special units.

Reading up on recent history of Brazil, the country had previously been one that had massive extremes between the rich and the poor, being prominently lacking in a true middle class. This problem was only worsened ever since Adepts began showing up, with gangs developing more power and terrorizing more people. This gave the excuse for the rich to enforce more harsh rules, pushing the poor even further into poverty.

After giving a second read through, the Tenno allowed himself to drift. Despite his fears and negative experience sleeping, the Operator knew the value of keeping a clear mind before performing a mission, especially one as delicate as this. Washing away the outside noises, the youth took a nap.

* * *

The clattering of ammunition, tightening of fabrics, and cocking of weaponry echoed throughout the large, underground room. There were a total of 11 silhouettes that stood against the darkness. One of them looked up from his preparatory work. "So it's time right?" spoke a Portuguese accented male voice.

"Yes, yes it is. Today, we of the Brazilian branch of Eden shall show Sumeragi what for." Responded a second, curt male voice.

There was a distinct crackle from the eerily glowing computer that rested against a corner of the bunker. A third male voice, this one with a slight static as evidence of this individual not being physically before the group of armed men. "Remember your mission; underneath the Sumeragi Grande Divisor skyscraper is an underground facility with which you must prioritize infiltrating. Within is a fellow Adept being experimented on. Free them, and recruit them to our cause."

The first voice responded with a certain drawl to his voice "I hear ya loud and clear. It's just that all of us want revenge for what Sumeragi and the government has done to us. You'll let us have that much leeway right, Tenjian?"

* * *

"-" won the match of "-" again. Tiredly, the shaggy haired child began to reset the small game set on the floor, marble orbs clattering as he picked them up and set them back in place. The face of another child he couldn't quite make out the features of laughed and said something as she took a marble and made her move. Allowing his focus to drift, the shaggy haired boy heard a door opening, a bit of trepidation welling up within him as he looked back towards the playroom door. Expecting an adult, coming in to pick up one of his friends, ending the day's playdate, the boy was relieved to see another child of similar age to him walking in. Turning, the boy returned to focus on the game he was playing. It was so strange, that kid held within his hands a bunch of cards, none of them from a game he knew of…

* * *

The sound of beeping jolted the Tenno out of his nap. The Brazilian shoreline was half a mile away from the Liset's current position. Exposing its underbelly, the Landing Craft began to flood water within the human shaped compartment. Flipping itself over, Ivara pushed off from the craft as the Itzal too was ejected from its compartment, the Archwing latching onto the female Warframe's lower spine. The form of the Liset faded into deeper waters as the Operator began his ascent. It was most prudent to keep away from the lighted up sections shoreline. Thankfully, the tourist sights weren't as well maintained as it was several decades back, there being more unlighted areas to sneak to after general tourism died down due to war and instability.

After reaching a certain depth, Ivara unlatched the Itzal from her spine, the Archwing sinking then fading into motes of Void energy. Its tether to the Liset activated, causing it to teleport back to its designated compartment. With its Archwing gone, Ivara began to breast stroke the rest of the way up to the surface of the sea.

As Ivara emerged from the sea and onto the beach, she felt copious amounts of water drip from every contour of her body. After a brief moment for the majority of water to slide off, she began a quick and quiet sprint towards the shadowed treeline.

Making a trek underneath the cover of her cloak, she cut through a massive resort undetected. When entering the favelas, she climbed onto the roofs and sprinted. Keeping out of the lights and the predominantly black coloring of his Warframe providing camouflage within the night, the Tenno went unseen as Ivara jumped from rooftop to rooftop. He found it odd though, the favelas were strangely quiet. From reports and the like favelas were usually pretty lively, but not a single peep was heard even though it was apparent humans still lived in these buildings. It was eerie and strange.

Eventually, Ivara found herself before the 70 floor skyscraper, it looming over her as the Operator mentally readied himself for infiltration. Jumping the fence and keeping to the shadows, the huntress Warframe climbed onto the roof of one of the skyscraper's surrounding buildings, using a Synthesis Scanner to chart the ventilation system.

After some walking, she found a suitably large enough ventilation duct that led to one of the building's interior checkpoints between the building proper and the Sumeragi barracks. Crawling through the vents, a single green monoeye scanned the interior behind the grate. Taking out the Synthesis scanner again, the Tenno found the cameras out of the Warframe's view. Thankfully they were the moving types. After observing it moving its sight away from where the opening of the vent duct was, Ivara quietly stepped out, replaced the vent's grating, and turning back on her cloak.

_Mission Start_

* * *

**I wasn't satisfied with how this chapter is just information and didn't to not satisfy readers by only having this out. I also didn't want this chapter to overwhelm a reader either by having chapter 6 be part of chapter 5. This chapter is little bit more than half the size of Chapter 6 anyway. **

**Regarding the IFBM, the IF stands for Improvised Firearm and historically improvised firearms have been utilized in various military and militia forces. The way the IFBM was constructed was a mixing of various preexisting and fabricated components looted from the various bases the Tenno has raided. Power wise it's an unforma'd and un potato'd rifle with no polarities. Essentially a kitgun though shoddily built with penchants for overheating which no gun currently in Warframe has as a draw back. **

**I also hope that I justified the Operator's want to maintain a lowkey for now in his tenure within this world. This entire arc is to establish the power levels of most of the main parties involved and serves to introduce the Operator to the main characteristics of Gunvolt: near future sci fi and psychics. **

**If you're Brazilian, my apologies if I got anything wrong with how Brazil is structured, all information I have on Brazil is through some surface level research online and long ago watching someone play through Max Payne 3.**

**9/6/19**

**The overhaul of chapter 5 is done. The rest of the Grande Divisor arc (chapter 5-7) will be rewritten in a similar manner with the change of point of view and the addition of additional scenes when necessary. **


	6. Chapter 6: Facility Depths Part 1

**So yes, maintaining my promise of releasing this chapter shortly after the release of chapter 5. It keeps up momentum and the next chapter will be the conclusion of this arc. Afterwards there will be more "filler" chapters where things are more calm and characters like Gunvolt will actually be doing stuff. Anyways, onto the chapter.**

**All characters belong to their respective owners.**

* * *

Beneath the symbol that divides the impoverished and the wealthy lies a tomb of concrete and steel, storing within a vengeful protector of nature...

* * *

Ivara's invisible form traversed the ornate hallways of the Grande Divisor. The Tenno was in search of an elevator whilst also getting the lay of the building. With the distance between the actual public space and elevators, it seems that who ever built this skyscraper decided to be a bit of an inconvenience to the soldiers stationed here. During his long trek, the Tenno observed that oddly enough, the outside and inside of the building hosted not even a single plant. Filing that information away for later, the infiltrator continued on his way.

After a few turns, the Tenno finally found it. After dodging a group of unaware workers he was about to enter an elevator. Ivara stopped herself. No one in their bright mind would allow guests or normal people allowed into the building to be able to go into the underground parts of the building, presumably because of more sensitive materials being down there.

To be on the safe side, Ivara turned and took a detour. Again after dodging a few employees she eventually found herself at the front desk. After hovering over the focused desk ladies manning the desk for a number of minutes, spying on the monitors, a worker to the side called for them. It was a call for break, "how convenient". There was only one lady left at the front desk. A blonde little lady who seemed to be the newbie of the group. Deciding quickly, the Tenno conjured a Sleep Arrow, crept behind her, and jabbed the arrow into her side. The lady fell asleep on the spot.

With the sole desk lady unconscious the gunmetal casing of a Cipher manifested in the infiltrator's hand. It was modified to plug into the USB slots of these computers. The simple command of sifting and taking out the data on the floor plans of the building yielded perfect results. The mini map within the Operator's HUD updated as the data was uploaded into Ivara's brain.

Rifling through the front desk computer, the Tenno finally found a building map showcasing the elevator shafts leading down to the lower levels.. Unlike the ones Ivara had found earlier, these were very utilitarian and most of all, hidden in employees only areas. Access key cards were required but that was quickly solved a few minutes later after the infiltrator swiped a key card from a scientist. The name tag reading "Dr. Madar".

With card in hand, the Operative approached the underground elevator he had found from the front desk building schematic and called the elevator, walking in as the doors opened to an empty elevator car.

* * *

The quiet of the night was disrupted by the rattling and sound of a Sumeragi ICV. This ICV came to a stop outside of a gate. From the silence a voice cut through the air, "Eye scanner, you know the drill."

In response to the voice an armored man exited the vehicle. Their approach being measured yet casual. His hands reached for his helmet, pausing for a moment before finally taking it off. It revealed a man with Caucasian features with brown hair though upon closer inspection, there was something off with his face, too artificial. The gate guard was too far away to really notice this detail. Getting to eye level with the scanner by the gate, the scanner chimed a valid scan. With an affirmative by the gate guard, the Sumeragi soldier walked back to the ICV.

As he entered the vehicle and leaving the gate guard's site, his head flickered, the features of a brown haired caucasian dissipating like a hologram, revealing a man of Brazilian descent. "It's done, Jose."

"Well done, Lucas. The mission can continue" responded an older voice. The ICV began moving again after the gate was opened. The vehicle passing by 2 hangars before stopping at one designated Hangar 5.

As the ICV parked itself at the designated area, 9 individuals disembarked from the vehicle. Each carried a standard issue MB4 Rifle. The 9 soldiers moved about the hangar, their gaze taking everything in. The 3 guards stationed within the hangar were busy occupying themselves with a game of cards to notice the movements. It was with a few hand gestures after one of the newly arrived soldiers hovered right next to a control panel did the arrivals take action.

Two of the squad with some effort took out a large and long, rectangular cargo box from the ICV. The three soldiers, after noticing the noise of moving cargo, stood up. Suspicion was in their gaze behind their domed helmets. With but a few hand gestures from one of the new arrivals, three series of gunshots rang through the hangar and three corpses fell to the ground, scattering their cards and leaving a pool of blood where they lay.

With the watchers dead, the faux Sumeragi soldiers began to move in haste. One carrying a satchel hovered behind several massive compartments sealed by shutter doors. The doors opened one by one as the satchel carrying soldier began taking out small packets, planting one in each compartment whilst leaving behind curious, physics defying embers above each packet.

The soldier hovering over the console, sparks dancing across his fingertips as they touched the circuitry, gave the thumbs up to one particularly vigilant soldier. With a series of hand gestures, the soldiers not doing something jogged over to the large cargo box, taking off the clunky armor of Sumeragi, leaving them in nary but their undersuits. With practiced ease, the lid was popped off the cargo box and out came various light weight equipment that each soldier began to don with haste. One of the soldiers taking a moment to take out contact lenses before donning the suits.

The outfits that each of these soldiers donned had armor equally spread out throughout the body in a form fitting mesh. Its design granting maximum mobility and lighter weight at the cost of increased vulnerability. To top off their tactical gear was an angular helmet whose forehead protruded outward. The visors of the helmet glowed a violet color.

The vigilant soldier finished donning his suit, gesturing towards the nearly done satchel carrying soldier to hurry and redress themselves. After finishing the last compartment, the satchel carrying soldier hurried over to where the rest were being dressed. Taking a series of straps and holsters from the box with caution symbols on them, the figure began to strap them to his upper legs and waist. As he did the others took their MB4 Beam Rifles, and with a series of clicks, the MB4 Beam Rifles fell apart. With outer chasis of the guns falling apart, the internals were revealed: heavily customized AK 47s that were customized with a scope, a semi silenced barrel, and larger ammo clips.

With the holstering of pistols from each respective soldier, the corpses of the 3 guards were systematically carried over and placed into the now emptied cargo box. The sole female of the group hovered over the pools of blood left behind by the Sumeragi men. Unlike her group mates, her gloves were fingerless. With a touch onto each puddle of blood, the crimson liquid disappear like magic, leaving zero traces for others to find.

With the satchel carrying soldier now done with putting on his outfit, he kept his angular helmet under his arm. The man's face bare to the world revealed a youthful face with light brown skin and curly black hair. Fishing from one of his various bags strapped to his lower body, he took out a cigarette. With a snap of his gloved fingers, a flame was brought to life, him lighting the cigarette and taking a slow drag.

The older voice gruffly stated, "Marco, put out that cig, we're on a mission!" With a shrug of his shoulders and a huff the younger man now identified as Marco took a deeper drag before slowly exhaling the smoke.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Jose. Just wanted a cig before starting, jeez." drawled Marco. With that said, the man dropped the cigarette, his boot crashing down upon the cancer stick. With that action, Marco finally donned his helmet and undid the outer chasis of his gun. Unlike the others, it was an M16 sporting an underslung grenade launcher.

After a brief moment the identified team leader of the group, Carlos, took out a smartphone. With a few taps, a 3 dimensional schematic of the entire building complex burst forth. A few taps after that, the lobby floor of the building was highlighted. Tapping his helmet on the left side, the rest of the group followed suit. As one, the operatives moved in silence. Their suit's optical camouflage activated, rendering them undetectable in the darkness.

* * *

It was a stark contrast within the underground facility compared to the ornate upstairs portion of this complex. Everything was sterile and strictly utilitarian in design. The comparisons with the Corpus aesthetics were very prevalent here.

Along with the similar aesthetics, the way they displayed their specimens too reminded the Tenno of the Corpus on Fortuna; specimens within glass display cases that showcased every plant's angle. It was quite odd, the specimens themselves seeming to be solely comprised of seeds in the various stages of growth.

Passing the glass cases and dodging the number of scientists and security guards residing on this floor, Ivara came upon a series of computers. The tables with which they were set down upon were quite messy, notes with messy handwriting scattered or stacked on the desks. Seeing a still turned-on computer, the Operative stuck a Cipher into the computer's USB port, the tiny piece of machinery rapidly copying everything upon insertion. The Tenno's stance became rigid and focused, maintaining a vigil incase some hapless worker spotted the alien USB stick stuck into the computer..

* * *

The group hugged every single dark corner as they snuck past guards and office workers alike. It was at the employees only section did the group pause. There was an exchange of words through their radio broadcast.

"Carlos, Paul, Louis, you're with me." spoke Jose.

"Understood Jose" responded a young teenager's voice.

"Lucas, take Marco, Adrianna, Pedro, and Antonio. Your job is to raise havoc on the surface and to perform sabotage when we extract the objective." the authoritative voice of Jose commanded.

The man who was being addressed merely nodded his head. It was then that 5 of the infiltrators split off from the main group, the remaining four taking the elevator after one of the 5 leaving touched and sparked the elevator buttons.

The group of 4 descended into the facility depths as the 5 on the surface made moves towards the main lobby.

* * *

Rationing energy reserves, the Tenno briefly turned off Ivara's invisibility, hiding the frame in a dark corner covered up by a few shelves and boxes. The cipher upturned the entire database stored on the computer without a hitch. The data on the computer was nowhere near comprehensive; out of the information the Tenno had got, the most important piece was a comprehensive layout of the underground complex.

The top most underground floor, the one the Tenno was on was the only rectangular floor. The rest of the floors resembled more like cylindrical slices. Again with the odd design, the bottom 3 floors seemed to be hollowed out, with a sort of dome structure dominating the majority of the 3 floors. The tip of this dome poking into the floor above the 3. Further investigation was required as to why such architecture was necessary.

According to the floor plans, the actual data servers in the complex were located on floor 7. Besides the floor plans there was some rudimentary data on research into the growth of plantlife. The Operator theorized that in all likelihood it must be some sort of alternative energy research considering Sumeragi's general focus in recent times. Question for the infiltrator was whether or not it was a purely technological experiment or if the so called Lifewave was involved.

Pushing off the dark corner she had hidden herself in, Ivara began a walk over to one of the 4 elevators indicated by the data. It would take the Tenno down to floor 4, but it might be for the best if the Tenno rotated each elevator. The alien warrior needed to get a proper feel for the place and it would be very suspicious if an elevator from the top floor went directly down into the 4th.

* * *

After a period of wait time, the elevator carrying the group of 4 Eden infiltrators came to a stop, a ding was heard as the elevator doors opened. Due to the lighting, Optic Camo was rendered near useless for being unspotted. It was for this reason that the infiltrators deactivated their camouflage for the elevator ride down. A bit of a shame though, for the door opened to a security guard on his way to changing shifts.

* * *

There wasn't any question for the guard. The armor he was seeing originated from the militant Adept supremacy group, Eden. Eyes wide, the guard's hand flew to his pistol holster, but found nothing. Confusion spread through his face and the guard went to yell "intruder!" but he found he couldn't speak. The feeling of something clogging his throat was all he cold feel. His sight was turned after the Eden soldier's hands went to his face, covering it. The last sight he saw was of one of the Eden infiltrators dangling a familiar pistol in his hands. This unfortunate security guard's eyes glazed over after a sickening crunch was heard and he rapidly lost all feeling in his body.

* * *

Extracting the roughly impaled knife from the man's neck and reholstering it, the lead Eden soldier turned upon their fellow Adept who now carried that security guard's pistol. "Louis, that was unnecessary and wasteful of you, using your Displacement Septimasome."

The youngest of our party simply shrugged. "Well I didn't want to risk having that dude shoot us and risk detection so…" There was an audible sigh before Jose spoke again.

"Louis, get rid of the body. Everyone, deploy your optical camouflage, we'll be sneaking through and past a large foray of scientists and guards. It's much brighter down here so take extra caution." With his piece said, the youngest member of the squad placed his gloved hands upon the corpse, the body disappearing and leaving no evidence of its existence. After the display of power, the group left the scene to go deeper into the facility.

* * *

As the Operator moved deeper into the facility, the number of plant experiments increasing. It was practically a forest now if not for the glass keeping each specimen separate from one another. Every single plant looked extremely healthy and in peak physical condition despite its environment underground. The vibrant greens against the subterranean environment threw the Tenno off a bit. Intermixed among the plants were a few seemingly artificial plants. The plaques, displaying quick overviews on each plant, were promptly scanned for future use along with the plants associated.

Along with the specimens, every other inch of the facility was charted. Eventually Ivara made her way towards an elevator. Down in the floor beneath her was the Tenno's goal. The data archives were on the floor down below. With a press of the button, the elevator was called to my current floor.

* * *

It was according to the facility schematic that the containment dome had sprinklers that would spray the subject with a sedative variant of S.E.E.D. With this fact in mind, the squad of Eden Adepts made their way to an elevator. If this rescue and recruitment was to be performed successfully, the sprinklers would have to be sabotaged.

All 4 men boarded the elevator with the elevator doors closing soon after.

* * *

This floor was nearly vacant. It was probably sheer luck that the Sumeragi scientists didn't have an experiment scheduled today. There was the occasional guard but compared to the previous floors the number could probably counted on a single hand down here.

Unlike previous floors, this floor was very obviously circular. The walls and hallways curving around a center point. With how few people were down here the Operator found it advantageous to deactivate Ivara's cloak. It was best to recharge the Warframe's energy pool before raiding the servers and making their way back up to the surface. There too was the side mission of finding any sort of easily transportable resource cache in the facility.

A beep that the Operator could only hear came from his Carrier Prime. Dark grey eyes narrowed as he noticed foreign blips appear on the radar. The blips came from the elevator Ivara was passing by. The Warframe sprinted a few feet ahead before activating her cloak. It was then that the bing of the elevator getting at its destination reached Ivara's audio receptors The Tenno stood still and watched the opening transport car.

* * *

The squad came upon an empty hall. Consulting the holographic data schematic, Jose gestured the rest of the squad after they cleared the hallway. They were close to the observation deck but the servers weren't their objective. The control room that controlled the sedatives were in the opposite direction. As a group the squad moved away though one of the group hung back for a few moments.

His helmet's narrow slits scrutinized an empty segment of the hallway. "Carlos, the path toward the S.E.E.D. control room is clear. Has your Septima detected anything?" Jose's voice over the team comm line. After his gaze floated over towards a small vent on the ceiling over the spot he was scrutinizing the man turned back towards the helmeted visage of his superior. With a shake of his head, Carlos responded with a firm "No, I didn't detect anything"

* * *

Ivara's muscles relaxed, her radar showing that the group of unknowns moved in the opposite direction of the server room. After leaving the range of the radar, the Tenno continued on his original objective towards the server room. The console into the room being made short work with the use of a Cipher.

The observatory deck was very spacious. It was with extra caution did the huntress Warframe sneak behind the stationed guard who monitored the room. In her hand materialized a sleep arrow. Like what had been done to the lady at the front desk, Ivara jabbed the arrow into the guard's neck. Their body falling limp and into deep sleep. With their unenhanced physique, the guard would stay knocked out cold for a long while from the sleep arrow, a minute of the sleep effect being extended to an hour.

Taking out an unused cipher and finding a door that lead into the back of the observation deck, the Tenno found his target: the data servers. With the cipher plugged all he had to do now was wait until the entire database was copied and uploaded into his HUD.

* * *

The group of infiltrators were given pause as they approached the holographic like form of a Hexapyle. Cracking his neck, Jose focused his Septimal energy, gathering dust which visibly coalesced into something akin to mist. Dust flowed into the small gaps between each hexagonal piece of the barrier. The structure visibly flexed before abruptly, the pink colored barrier shattered.

The sound of glass shattering caused a lone, bushy haired scientist to jerk his head towards the door as the Eden Adepts burst into the control room. With the advantage of surprise and the speed granted to them by their peak physical bodies, the scientist was restrained. His card, the name on it being "Huey Emmerich", was confiscated. With a mere tilt of his head, Jose commanded Paul to sabotage the system.

The man responded by uncorking a flask that he carried upon his person. Taking out a knife, the Eden operative jabbed it into one of the tubes containing the sedatives. Hovering his flask over the tube, he poured the clear liquid, water, into the tube. As the water made contact with the exposed pipe, instead of leaking onto the floor like the sedatives were, the liquid slinked its way like a snake through the pipe, ignoring the pressure and the current. In the liquid's wake frost began to spread through the pipe. The metal warping from expansion as the sedatives too became frozen from the water

Around and around the water from the flask went. It circled through the piping that was around the circumference of the dome containment chamber. Sprinklers positioned in the walls warped and broke, rendered unusable as both the input and outputs of the machinery were destroyed all at once. After a minute, the entire dispenser system was rendered completely destroyed.

With that out of the way, Jose and Carlos roughly dragged Huey into a security panel. It was an elevator that lead into the containment room and due to its importance, had an eye detection module employed. Dragging Huey over to the security panel, Jose swiped the lifted ID card into the security panel. The group of Adepts then shoved his face into said panel as the eye scanner confirmed Huey's authorization. With Huey's uses expended, Jose put a pistol to the back of the glasses wearing scientist and pulled the trigger.

* * *

With the data obtained, Ivara was prepared to leave. Sparing a look down into the containment chamber, the Warframe's single eye spied some sort of slumped thing that rested in the center of the chamber.

Massive tubes extended forth connecting the still form with the surrounding walls. The tubing pulsed with a certain light not so differently from the thick wiring found in many Grineer bases. Upon its surface lay the label of "S.E.E.D."

On the other side of the chamber, directly opposite to the Observatory, was another room which beneath it was the only elevator into the chamber.

A fit of curiosity overtook the Tenno as they stopped themselves from making their way to the exit. To satiate this curiosity, Ivara hooked the data to her HUD. A cursory search through the copied database for the keyword of "S.E.E.D" yielded three results. The document labelled "Adept Research Summary" wasn't as long as the others, thus the Operator chose that file to read.

* * *

Subject: Pamela Lillian Isley

Gender: Female

Age: 26

Lifewave Lv: 7

Grade: S

Septimasome: Plant Growth Manipulation

Log 00

It is with great hesitance that my research team and I continue on the act of experimenting on the Adept named Pamela Lillian Isley. The power of the Septima is still a great unknown and to not repeat the mistakes of our predecessors we have taken much more extreme measures to keep her in check though I fear our methods of keeping her in check will also enhance her powers and in the case of a containment breach, there is no doubt in my mind that it will be the end of us all. This research report will be a summarization of every experiment we have performed upon the test subject. Summarization will take place in increments of 50 experiments.

Log 01

The Eco Terrorist based in the Amazon Rainforest, Pamela Isley was detained by an Adept hunter unit 2 years ago. Upon capture she was restrained via usage of modified samples of S.E.E.D. (details on modifications within file C)that disoriented and left Pamela vulnerable to capture. During the mission, she showcased an extreme power over the growth of plants within the surrounding vicinity. Sumeragi superiors have mandated that experimentation with the usage of S.E.E.D. as a Septima enhancement drug is to be performed with projected results being devoted towards developing a potential alternative energy resource.

Log 02

Experiments carried out by Sumeragi have thus been focused entirely around the usage of the aftereffects and potential usage of her S.E.E.D. enhanced Septima. Plants affected by her Septima have showcased impossible growth. Despite acorns that were placed within containers lacked both fertile soil or water, the seed sprouted uncontrollably into a sapling when in a 5 meter radius of the incapacitated Adept. It is troubling regarding how powerful this Adept ability has become but Sumeragi higher ups insist upon further experimentation.

Log 03

During previous experimentation Subject Pamela Isley has displayed unhinged characteristics when lucid. It is hypothesized that a combination of her disposition before her capture and constant exposure to S.E.E.D. has compromised her mental health. During one of these "episodes", damages incurred on the facility were a direct cause of her causing the sudden and violent growth of nearby plants above ground. Ever since that incident all plants within a 20 mile vicinity of the building complex has been removed and taken elsewhere. There is worry from this scientist of the potential havoc and destruction this Septima user will cause. This scientist will submit a request for more restraints upon the subject's form.

Log 04

Sumeragi superiors have delivered what is known as a prototype "Glaive" to further enhance and potentially give complete control of the subject's Septima powers over to scientists. Again, this scientist logging information writes concerns over how potentially dangerous this act is.

Log 05

A change has occurred to the subject's biology. Ever since Glaive prototype implantation, the Glaive has fused to the subject's spine and has caused fungi and germ like substances to appear within her bloodstream. These developments are troubling and this scientist request more sedatives to be pumped with the S.E.E.D. to keep Subject Isley in check.

Log 06

Flesh samples retrieved off of the subject's body has shown a fast regeneration ability. It is apparent that the plant germs within her body are-

* * *

A distinct hiss and crash was heard, snapping the hooded form of Ivara to attention. Her full attention was towards the containment chamber, the massive tubes feeding S.E.E.D. into the Sumeragi test subject falling limply onto the floor.

Following these developments the shell that contained the female subject began to fall apart, her red hair unfurling into a curtain that covered her privates as the pieces resembling tectonic plates slid off her smooth as alabaster skin. That same skin was a sickly, pale green color whose texture was only marred by a black construct that was latched onto her spine. Its ridges glowed an ominous green.

Curled into a fetal position, the pale green woman began to stir after the sound of an elevator descended and stopped at the floor of her chambers. The doors hissed open as 4 armored individuals stepped out.

From the sidelines the mono eye of Ivara stared downwards towards the events unfolding below, the Operator within having a sinking feeling within his gut.

* * *

**So what do you think of my Gunvolt esque pre mission flavor text? Anyways I'm sorry if I dragged my feet sort of with the descriptors of how this underground facility goes and there is potential of me revisiting it but I am unsure of what details I could add. **

**Yes, the wrathful protector of nature is a blatant expy of Poison Ivy from DC, also I am going to have to add a few notes to the beginnings of all chapters stating that none of the characters belong to me other than the Operator. **

**Regarding where this sits on the Gunvolt timeline, this is before Zonda infiltrates Japan; before the 3DS Striker Pack Drama CD involving the Eden attack on Sumeragi. Anyways as always leave a review if there are any improvements I can make on the chapter. Have a nice day!**

**Edit: just added Pamela's age to the file. Regarding the Operator's inventory, he won't be able to use other Warframes besides Ivara and Umbra just yet due to the risk of the hammer space collapsing on itself. This is just a plot point so that the Operator doesn't dominate everyone from GV which would just make things not interesting. I assure you by the end of GV1 and when GV2 starts, the Operator will have access to all of his equipment. **


	7. Chapter 7: Facility Depths Part 2 Finale

**So it took a little to get this one out. Well after this it will take a bit to get back to this to update, more details in the author's notes. Anyways, All characters belong to their respective owners. I own nothing but the scenario and possibly the Operator. Without further ado, Chapter 7**

* * *

It was the clacking of footsteps that awoke Pamela from her trance. The drugs still circulated her body but at the very least her senses were functioning properly. A numbing sensation still pervaded her body, her still unable to move. The footsteps ceased, the 4 pairs of legs being within the red haired woman's sight.

As the drug induced haze began to fade into non existence, an ember of rage turned into a blaze as she re-asserted control of her changed body. That rage had nowhere else to go besides the group standing before her downed form. Their words never reached her ears as that horrible emotion replaced the drugs that were now mostly absent from her system.

* * *

It was rather easy taking control of the entire surface floor for the Eden operator named Marco. The Grande Divisor's defenses were meaningless due to their unguarded state and in the face of the superior being. The Adept allowed himself a smile to spread across his features as the very technology Sumeragi so valued was turned against them. The alarms failed to activate thanks to Antonio's interference. They were effectively prisoners in their own complex.

Things were going swimmingly as he and his compatriots herded all the unarmed employees into the center of the lobby room. With their front desk computers being on the same network as everything in this building plus some 'cheating' with the Azure Thunderclap Septima, Antonio had seized the lower depths as well. It was now just a matter of waiting for Team A to be done with getting the VIP back to the surface and rendezvousing with Adepts Francis and Marie at extraction.

The urge to imbibe on his vice rose to the surface with nothing to do and no one to stop him from being 'distracted'. Fingering the cancer stick and about to light, the group's hacker's voice rang loud and clear through the radio, "ATTENTION ALL SQUAD MEMBERS, NEGOTIATIONS HAVE FALLEN SHORT; CARLOS AND LOUIS HAVE PULLED OUT. WE ARE TO EXTRACT IMMEDIATELY. I HAVE FORCED LOCKDOWN ON ALL LOWER FLOORS. I WON'T REPEAT MYSELF, PLEASE HURRY AND EVACUATE."

Before the demolitions expert could even comprehend what he had just heard, an earthquake hit. As he stumbled to maintain balance, the cigarette fell out of his hand. A distinct cracking of the floor beneath came to his ears, then everything went to hell.

* * *

Moments earlier…

Jose's calm voice echoed through the chamber as he made to negotiate with the previously detained eco terrorist. The Adept with the teleportation Septima named Louis could tell something was wrong with Pamela. Her eyes seemed to be focused elsewhere, some sort of intensify in those green irises. None of these observations gave good feelings to the youngest of the group. His compatriots were by his side though thus that sinking feeling was brushed into the background.

It was the warm splash of blood that caused all of us to move.

Jose's body fell in two halves, separated at the waist. The response was prompt. A torrent of lead that tore through the madwoman's nude body. Unnaturally green blood spewed forth onto the ground around her but as if she was simply recovering from a small stumble, Pamela got back up to her two feet. Louis's world turned sideways the Eden operative Carlos shoulder tackled the teleportation Adept to the ground, a green blur passing the space the group's youngest once occupied.

As he landed on his side, Louis caught a glimpse of Paul crouched. The man uncorked two flasks that were attached to his utility belt. Ice flowed like water from the flask, their movements like snakes'. The ice hacked away at razor sharp vines but it was a losing battle. For every compressed vine he hacked away 3 more would take its place. The flurry of hand gestures that Paul utilized to control his ice halted with a flourish akin to a conductor's ending a music piece. Ice embraced vines in a wall of cold.

One of the few times that Paul deigned to speak he voiced in a winded tone, "Louis, take Carlos and go back to the surface!"

The youngest protested, "But what of you?!" before the older man could respond a sudden crack and fleshy sound entered the Eden operatives' ears. Within Paul's abdomen was a vine curled like a drill. The vine then unfurled before digging themselves deep into the cryomancer's body before his back exploded into a gory mess.

"GAAAAAaaaaarh!" the scream came from right beside me. Louis's helmet donned head turned towards the pained gasps of Carlos, clutching a mutilated shoulder. In an instant, the unwounded Adept latched onto the wounded man and both were instantly gone from the bloody scene.

* * *

Tenno POV

Ivara took a small step backward. _"So that's the power of Adepts..."_ The power they had were akin to Warframes. Thankfully they lacked the same physical capabilities as Warframes so they were more like the Eximus units that cropped up occasionally on missions but they were still a threat all the same to even the most hardy of Tenno. Looking back down as the pair of survivors blinked out of existence from the assault, the plant Adept turned unnaturally fast. Her glowing green orbs made eye contact with the Huntress Warframe's single eye. Blind fury born of zealotry was easily recognizable in those eyes. The same eyes found in the most fervent of the Grineer. Then the rumbling started.

Sheer instinct took hold of the Tenno as he threw himself backwards as the pane of glass that Ivara stood a mere inch from a millisecond before exploded. Massive roots moving like Hydroid's Kraken tentacles lashed wildly in Ivara's general direction. _"This was an enemy, through and through."_

Bullets laced with fire and acid tore into the extremities forcing the roots to back off. Scrambling back to her two feet a self righteous voice yelled at Ivara from the chamber below. "I am Pamela Isley, cretin. You, false, abominable being, are an affront to Mother Nature! Heed my words your blood shall water the soil with which my crusade shall bloom!" With that declaration the rumbling began to intensify as the cracking of concrete was heard. Stepping forth with her cloak active, the Warframe's single eye fell upon the prison chamber, its center now covered with plantlife.

Among the mesh of roots flowers blossomed forth, the fruits spiked and looking ready to burst. The Adept's gaze focused upon the Tenno with frightening accuracy. It was an unspoken confirmation that this lady, with absolute control over plantlife, could sense the Technocyte virus that composed Ivara's body. Dropping the cloak, the Tenno broke into a sprint as needles tore through the observatory with the same strength as heavy artillery.

With the observatory devastated there was little room to maneuver. _"Need to get out of here ASAP"_. Red lights signified a full lockdown as Ivara scanned and identified the doors out of the observatory being in complete lockdown._ "Understandable"_ With dextrous hands the Warframe loaded a high yield explosive into the underslung launcher of her improvised firearm and fired as the shadow of a particularly massive root curled into something akin to a fist. The remains of the observatory were destroyed as Ivara rolled through the door. Coming out of the roll, the Tenno fingered a silver device. This was an Air Support Charge which Ivara promptly activated.

Immediately the synthetic yet organic voice of the Tenno's ever faithful Cephalon broke through the chaos of the situation, "Operator! Is there an emergency?!"

"Yes there is Ordis, I need evac. I've attained the data but a third party has unleashed a walking natural disaster. The Grande Divisor seems to be under lockdown and I need the Liset's Override." The Cephalon's prompt response was apologetic, "My apologies Operator, I will require 5 minutes to enter range." The Tenno internally kicked himself for not finding a hole in the facility's monitoring of air space. He had put finding a quick evac route at the end of his list of things to do in this infiltration mission gone awry. Now he was feeling the consequences for his short sightedness in Ordis hanging back to not risk detection, "It's fine, I'll stall her out until then."

The IF Beam Rifle was dismissed along with the used air support charge. In replacement was the Glaive Prime and the Zakti. A second later the adjacent wall was torn apart by the plants, "There you are, pest." Pamela spat. Ivara's arms and legs tensed in anticipation of the coming skirmish.

* * *

It was chaos for Sumeragi. From a perch that overlooked the military complex from afar lay two figures. One held within her two hands a robust railgun the scope of which was trained upon the erratically moving military force. From her sights explosions could be seen rocking the compound as mechs were blown apart or incapacitated by various explosives. A hangar bay was completely consumed in a fiery blaze while others had smoke billowing out from their windows.

"This is Team C to Team B, do you copy?" spoke the second, male figure. The radio crackled in response, "Jose and Paul have been lost, besides them all members are accounted for. Carlos is wounded." "I copy Lucas, get to the evac point as soon as you can, over and out." The man's hand left the radio device as he looked back at his female compatrio expectedly.

"Bad news for Tenjian huh Marie?" The woman paused before making a response to her male partner, "Yes, yes it is. Pamela would've made a powerful ally but alas some things are not meant to be." The man hummed at her rather detached response before pouring his focus to the sound of the wind, his role as spotter demanding it so.

* * *

Ivara's sleek form flew through the air in a show of acrobatics as it went over Pamela and her plants. With hands outstretched the Warframe found purchase on one of many dashwire arrows that branched across the chamber. It was a game of keep away with Pamela. Said Adept's body developed welts after a lucky shot from the Zakti, the gaseous payload having dealt damage to both her and her plants. It served as further fuel to stoke the flames of her rage.

A bloated flower exploded clouds of toxic gas and an equally bloated fruit exploded its seeds whichever way in the hopes of catching the acrobatic humanoid. In retaliation Ivara fired 3 Zakti pellets that embedded themselves uncomfortably close to the deranged eco terrorist. As a follow up an incendiary grenade lit up the gas near instantly. The irate screams of the green woman was like nails on chalkboard to the Tenno. With resolute focus he chucked the golden saw that was the Glaive Prime. Its blade slicing through the plants like a hot knife through butter.

The disoriented redhead found even more excruciating pain as the blade homed onto her erratically moving form and dug into her left shoulder before violently detonating. The dangerously sharp blade found its way back to its owner's hands, said owner taking a moment to appreciate his handiwork. This was short lived, however. Isley's mutilated body was missing her entire left torso and arm. Her heart was surely annihilated from the explosion but despite this, the exposed section swelled like pus from a pimple. Grotesquely, the mass exploded, the berserking Adept's left half was back with nary a scratch.

Cursing internally the Tenno recommenced their game of cat and mouse but things were getting harder. With the destructive force of plantlife, the complex was quickly beginning to destabilize. The very foundations were crumbling. None of that was more evident with pieces of the ceiling breaking apart and shattering. It being a disruptive force that acted as another factor why the Tenno had to reapply dashwire arrows to maintain mobility. "_This can't go on"_ the Operative voiced internally after a quick feel for Ivara's energy reserves.

Cutting through the chaos in a pained, shrill voice, Pamela announced with piety, "Persistence in cold, persistence in heat, I cry to my beloved children, ETERNAL BLOOM." The surroundings began to shake violently, the Ivara already charting plans to replace her dashwires and the Operator internally thinking, "is she seriously making an attempt at a poem before unleashing an attack…?"

Roots sprouted violently, their surface becoming bloated out by a variety of flowers and other such plantlife. Ivara merely jumped up onto and quickly shot out more dash wires, creating a spider web above the hostile flora. Thoughts on the routine having only repeated itself played through the rather fatigued Operative until orange fumes began to quickly spread at an alarming rate through the ruined experiment chamber. Recalling the images in the report he had read before the fight's start the Tenno realized what the fumes were when he caught a glimpse of the massive purple flowers that were the gas's origin,_ "Is that SEED…?!"_ It was too late when the Operator realized the full extent of its spread as it covered the mono eyed Warframe.

A feeling of pin prick needles spread throughout the female body. "_Transference static?!"_ The body felt like it had fallen asleep, the Tenno's movements slowing. It was this vulnerability that the inhuman eco terrorist exploited, lashing with razor sharp vines and tossing the frame through the air. Thinking fast the raven haired teen within the frame manifested out of his damaged Warframe, the manifestation of a young teen stunning the red haired enemy for but a brief moment. Tuning out the sickeningly sweet aroma that filled his nose that held little effect due to his physiology as a child of the Void, the Operator focused upon a path. It was one paved by the absolute, unrelenting destruction of everything.

**Madurai**

The surroundings of the bare Operator exploded into a rapidly expanding field of fire, the orange fumes and the purple Eidolon flowers burning away from Void corrupted flames. Instinctually Pamela covered herself underneath thick roots, saving her from the pain of fire. Through the aftermath haze of his refulgent blaze, eyes that glowed with the nebulous power of the Void caught sight of the impromptu shelter constructed around the irate plant fanatic. The teen attempted a walk forward but he felt a sudden shortness of breath and the taste of iron in his mouth. _"So this is my limit huh"_ With a mere thought the previously discarded and wounded Ivara replaced the black haired boy's form.

The familiar green aura from Carrier Prime enveloped the frog like Warframe, repairing the damage it had received slowly. A sort of unsteady stand off between Pamela and the Tenno commenced, the ball of root shedding it's charred exterior in chunks and Ivara checking her ammunition. _"Forty five clips for the Zakti, four clips for the IF Beam Rifle, and one grenade."_ The Operator's face was tugged in a firm frown. Their reservoir of Void power was steadily returning but due to their exceeding of their limits it was returning slower than usual. It was then from his comms the voice of Ordis came through "Security Override successful; ESCAPE NoOoOWw."

With newfound vigor swelling in the Operator's chest, they loaded their last grenade and fired. Veering in a full 180 degree turn from the Tenno's _Navigation_, the explosive bypassed the barrier and exploded on Pamela's form, stunning and wounding her. The explosion also blasted away the barrier Pamela had been hiding behind as the Tenno then summoned and fired Ivara's Artemis bow. It was through observation in the 5 minute long skirmish that the operator figured out that the healing of complex areas such as the head took longer than regeneration of the limbs. To make sure his aim was true, Ivara once again extended her focus to the arrows, making its trajectory bend to the frame's will. One of the arrows made contact with the dazed redhead, the temple ran completely through. With the green lady neutralized for now, Ivara made her escape.

Taking aim at an exposed but still intact hallway, a dashwire arrow was shot. Unlike common procedure though, the moment the wire became taught the Warframe grabbed hold of the wire and cut. The slingshot quickly cleared the distance. The winded Frame, upon landing, immediately slammed the up button on the elevator. That pleasant ding signified its readiness and the infiltrator boarded the elevator.

Too slow though was the elevator. The muffled, wrathful stomping and noise of the plant Adept could be heard. With the speed the elevator was going, they would never out run the Adept. That thought in mind, the black haired Operator showed his youthful face to the clinical light of the transport. Wiping blood trailing from his nose and eyes, a Void grenade manifested in his Amp clad hand. The ceiling panel was blown off. Focusing inside, the child became energy that desperately flew upwards in the long elevator shaft, his dashes enough to fly 2 floors up. Halfway up to the third, his concentration slipped, exhaustion weighing on his lungs as he transitioned from ethereal spectre to child of the stars. Clasping the taught elevator wire, the child stopped his fall.

A vigorous shaking was felt through the cable wire, _"So she's caught up to the elevator"._ Focusing upon the image of his frame of war, his form was replaced with the alien form of Ivara, grasping tight onto the elevator wire. Spinning the Glaive Prime, Ivara sliced into the wire. The elevator immediately dropped like a stone, the counter weight in the elevator pulley system yanking Ivara. A twinge of pain travelled through Ivara's arm socket. Counting the number of floors and using the enhanced eyesight of the Warframe, the Tenno let go.

Two lean arms grasped the edge of the surface floor, with ease pulling themselves up. Prying the doors open with hands and feet, the lone alien operative was met with chaos.

* * *

It was the moment that Carlos and Louis reappeared in the lobby, with Louis crumpling in a heap from exhaustion and Adrianna quickly coming over to heal Carlos, that the entire operation went sideways. After healing a still pained Carlos that the earthquake hit, the scientists and personnel took advantage of their stunned captors to run. This unnatural occurrence also alerted the countless number of Sumeragi guards to the dire situation resulting in their mobilization despite Antonio's vain attempts. His manipulation of information from the ground floor security room stating that nothing was going on in the facility proper had completely failed. The electricity based septima user proceeded to activate the lockdown sequence, activating nearly every single automated defense measure within the facility to fire upon Sumeragi personnel. Using the data presented for the ground layout, the weak Azure Thunderclap user proceeded to hack the systems, paving the way for his team's evacuation.

Explosions went off throughout the main hangars as Sumeragi soldiers attempted to mobilize their mechs, a majority becoming incapacitated from the high yield explosives they had accidentally set off upon moving. Despite these hindrances, however, the soldiers continued to mobilize in groups, destroying the variety of automated defenses that came their way and only truly being held back by shutter doors.

* * *

Antonio could feel the trail of sweat going down his brow with the grainy sighting of SUmeragi soldiers slowly cutting a way through the various defenses he had set in their path. Turning to his personal tablet, all cameras monitoring my comrades shown on the device's screen. They were making a speedy evacuation, that was good in the Adept's mind. The only stray was Marcos _"Of course it would be Marcos"_. The man was simply too much of a free spirit for such a tight operation. Quickly giving directions and actively sealing and hindering the dome faced soldiers, Antonio diverted his attention to the most worrying detachment of soldiers.

A large contingent of 10 were rapidly tearing their way through machinery with bazookas, beam rifles, and grenades. The riot shields they carried enough to defend against the rockets and beam attacks by their former mechanical comrades. They were 2 corridors away, cutting a path towards the ground security room; the room the Azure Thunderclap Adept was currently residing in. A growl grew under his breath at the mounting stress, "Marcos! Pick up the pace!" A rather irate voice responded, "I. AM." The running form of the fire Septima user could easily be seen in one of the security cameras positioned 3 corridors in the opposite direction away. But there was something off, he was moving away from the exit and towards the security room.

"Marcos, what are you doing?!" in response, the squad's demolitions expert responded, "Saving your sorry arse, now give me a rundown of what I'll have to be dealing with yeah?" Antonio yelled over his commlink, "The nerve-, I'm only hanging around because of you!"

An explosion snapped Antonio out of his incoming tirade. Unlike the previous ones this was one that was uncomfortably close. Looking at the array of cameras he saw it, the Sumeragi squad had breached and was heading through the last corridor before the security room.

A beeping sound came from my tablet. Someone was hacking through the entire facility and lifting every single lockdown I had placed in the facility to seal the lower basement levels and the ones up in the surface level. Every single shutter door was being unsealed. The Eden operative's mouth gibbered as he attempted to combat this third party. "No no no no..."

It was too late, despite his talents and Septima, he was completely locked out of the system. How? Who? He couldn't understand. His breathing became short and panicked. Shakily, he clutched the rifle which he barely used in live combat and turned to the now imposing door frame, the heavy set footsteps of the soldiers closing in. The moment a domed helmet was within sights he fired, but what good was one relatively inexperienced combatant to an entire squad of actual soldiers? One helmet met the ground in a pool of blood, two verdant shots responded to Antonio's one burst of ballistics. The superheated energy blasts tore straight through his tactical vest and through the formerly protected chest cavity. The hacker's eyes squeezed shut from the pain as all senses left him.

* * *

It was the warcry and fiery payload that met the Sumeragi soldiers as they pulled out of the security room to report to their main forces their take down of an Eden operative. Caught off guard the unit of 10 were decimated by the angry Septima user. It was only the intensifying earthquakes that snapped Marco out of his haze as the now mourning man stormed out of the collapsing facility, regret grasping at his heart in a vice grip.

* * *

Louis's lungs burned from exertion. There was radio silence from Antoinio's end, a sinking feeling in his gut taking hold towards the team hacker's presumed fate. _"Dammit it all!"_

It was with the second in command, Lucas, taking point did the group get outside of the crumbling facility. There was a panic as groups of resident non combat personnel fled in droves, confusion and fear tripping themselves up.

As they neared the facility extremities did plants begin to erupt from the ground. No doubt the doing of the monster down below. A particularly powerful eruption of flora knocked the young man down. Quickly looking at his squad mates he found he wasn't the only one caught off guard as he caught sight of the cell's resident medic, Adrianna, falling on the ground. Real panic set in as he caught sight of a Mantis mech. There were burn marks all over it but it was still functional, the gatling guns rotating and aimed squarely at the still recovering female member of the group. A cry of warning escaped his throat when out of the blue, the Prism Septima user, Pedro shoved Adrianna. She was out of range of the hail of high caliber bullets. Pedro, on the other hand wasn't so lucky. There was only a bloody paste of human remains left where he once was.

As the glowing mechanical eyes turned back to the still form of Adrianna, the side of the Mantis body was punctured, it promptly detonating shortly after. Through the radio chatter a cold female voice instructed, "The path has been cleared, get Operative Adrianna out of there and rendezvous at Evac Point D." His jaw clenched before he ran, picking up the still shocked form of the medic and making a run for it through the facility gates as more and more damnable roots sprouted from the ground beneath.

* * *

_"Well, shit"._ Was the Tenno's single thought as he quickly walked under the shelter of Ivara's cloak through the chaos that was the fire fight between the Sumeragi soldiers and the mechanical forms of the facility's proxies. It wasn't helping that there was a persistent quaking thoroughly shaking the building like a clumsy Rhino bullet jumping up and down on a scaffold.

Bobbing and weaving in an invisible, nonsensical waltz through the gunfire, Ivara got out of the facility proper without needing to get into a fight. It was then that the Tenno dropped the cloak and broke into a full sprint through the courtyard, onto the roof of the more militarized facility complex and over the fences. Now out of the chaos that now dominated the Grande Divisor, the Operative opened up a radio channel with Ordis. "Ordis, do you have my location?"

Responding to his inquiry, the faithful ship Cephalon responded, "Yes, are we coordinating an evac?"

"Correct, this entire operation has gone pear shaped and its best that we pull out with the data I've currently gathered-" Before he could continue, the sounds of cement breaking apart came to Ivara's audio receptors. Taking a peak from the edge of the facility, the Tenno saw the sight of the Grande Divisor crumbling. The main building had began to sink but before the bulk of cement and steel went under, it was all caught by massive plant growth. It expanded at an alarming rate as a massive flower bloomed in a quagmire of building and plants.

A familiar voice boomed from the flower, "Hear me humans. I am Pamela Isley, herald of Mother Nature! Long have humans polluted the Earth with their technology, eviscerating the biosphere and destroying this beautiful, green planet! I say no more. I say that it is time to strike back! With this power that has been bestowed, that you swine tried to rob me of, I will exact Mother Nature's vengeance!"

…

_Hands gripped the shoulder of a frightened youth of similar age. "You would question the Lotus? She gave us purpose, one beyond serving the Orokin!" The speaker's voice, his voice, dripped with hatred and contempt at both the other Tenno and the mentioned caste._

…

He banished those memories from his mind _"Zealotry is a horrible thing"_. images of a certain syndicate arose but were similarly ignored as the Tenno focused on formulating an evac route with Ordis. Before he could speak a single word Ordis cut him off, "Operator, I am getting massive energy readings above the Grande Divisor. I advise getting to cover." In response to Ordis's statement, Ivara's sole eye turned back to the grandstanding eco terrorist, this time the frame's gaze turning skywards as the sky was aglow with a purple color. The Tenno's danger senses tingled as the hooded frame dove over the edge of the Grande Divisor for cover.

A deafening boom echoed as powerful winds tore through towards the epicenter. After all was over, Ivara gazed back to a massive cloud of smoke and debris. No silhouette of the massive treelike plant Pamela had grown was in sight. Getting up onto level with the fallout zone the Tenno was rendered speechless. Where there was once a massive building complex there was now a massive hole in the ground. "What in the Void…?"

"Operator… Operator!" snapping out of his reverie, the Operator picked up the comm. "Ordis, I'm fine."

Relief in his voice, Ordis responded, "Oh thank you Operator, I thought I lost you. I've managed to chart an evacuation point for you, I'll mark it on your map now. There is complete radio silence, I think that orbital strike silenced all local communication." With a grim constenance, Ivara nodded. Turning away from the disaster site, she began to move in the direction of the marked evac point.

* * *

Location: Unknown

"Was it truly necessary, Nova?" spoke a hesitant Jota.

From behind a desk, a young sophisticated voice responded, "Whatever do you mean Jota? She would've become a larger threat if allowed to completely escape the facility. It was the perfect chance to get rid of one loose end without the risk of further casualties. Besides, it's not like other nations would be capable of responding to our show of force. Between the Kamishiro and Merak erasing related information on this incident, Japan is still blameless and invincible to foreign threats."

Exasperated, the colonel responded, "You know that isn't what I meant Nova. Was it truly necessary for you, the unofficial head of national security, to personally accompany Merak and his strike team to subdue these, 'aliens'." The scarred young man gestured towards a tablet. Upon the display it showcased various pictures, the two that stood out the most being the carcass of a bulky, humanoid donning a tortoise like armor and a bulky, massive sunken ship resembling an aquatic arthropod. Between the two pictures they shared the same color scheme of being predominantly black with crimson accents.

Nova, after a pause, spoke back to Jota, "In truth, not really but I wanted to see with my own two eyes something that was potentially from the same place that our alien 'friend' hailed from. Besides, that expedition did yield a truly fascinating find." With a flick Nova threw up a sealed tube. Its flight was cut short as Nova caught it in the palm of his hand. With a thumb and pointer finger on each end of the tube, Nova inspected the vial with fascination. Within it held an oily, black substance that glinted a phosphorescent red glow. Jota let out another sigh before returning to his duties.

Unknown to the two high ranking Sumeragi officers, there in a dark corner of the room watched from afar a pair of sickly, pale yellow, glowing eyes. The orbs glowed with the nebulous, ever changing pattern of eldritch energies. A face splitting smile grew on its formless face before in an instant, the figure was gone.

* * *

**So yep, done is this arc. After this the Operator enters the GV1 events proper in his pursuit to get home to his fellow Tenno. Regarding schedule, I am working on a second fanfiction right now focusing upon lewd purple haired women (that's right I said women as in plural) and Bonkles. As of May 29 of this year of the pig, with this arc done I'll be pouring my attention towards generating two more chapters for One Day May we Meet Again, Albrect to cap off the Island of Lost Dolls arc then begin working on both fanfictions from there. Now for review response. **

**That scientist that died wasn't a nod to Hal, it was a nod to his deplorable father who deserved something worse than drowning himself in a pool. I am not so cruel as to off such a cinnamon roll as Otacon, at the very least not like that.**

** I hope you enjoy what else I have in store in this crossover fanfic. Hopefully I can accurately nail down GV characters and not make any tumbles regarding lore.**

**As always be sure to leave constructive criticism in the reviews. Have a good day! **


	8. Chapter 8: To the Rising Sun

**I'm baa-aack~. This is a shorter chapter and is just the Operator orienting himself within this new world in the role of a civilian. More details on writing and story progress at the author's note at the end. All characters belong to their respective creators. Without further ado Chapter 8.**

* * *

Location: Unknown

The ambient green glow of a nearby computer highlighted the glinting teeth of what could be considered the human embodiment of a gremlin. The clacking of a keyboard served as the only sound in dimly lit, cramped room this teen resided within. His focus upon mocking uptight souls on internet forums and general internet tomfoolery was interrupted by a catchy tune followed by the lyrics of "ice ice baby yeah~". Cutting off the ring tone before it could repeat, Teseo picked up the phone, the profile picture depicting the closed eyes face of a white haired Asian youth sporting a cool demeanor.

Out of his fanged mouth the self proclaimed 'bestest' hacker exclaimed, "Hey hey boss man Tenjian! Teseo - san here~"

Ignoring the green haired teen's attempt at a call girl impression the ever calm white haired co founder of Eden got straight to business, "Teseo, what did you manage to salvage from the Grande Divisor's comm lines before its destruction?"

Letting out a drawn out sigh and idly spinning in his gamer chair the internet troll responded, "Ehhhh…. Well there is this, boss man," with a few audible taps on a keyboard both Tenjian and Teseo were subjected to a static sound before voices cut through the noise,

"Operator! Is there an emergency?!" Hearing the foreign voice both Tenjian and Teseo found that it sounded slightly synthetic but made no comment as a second, youthful sounding voice that hinted at an owner of similar age to the Eden members made itself known. "Yes there is Ordis, I need evac. I've attained the data but a third party has unleashed a walking natural disaster. The Grande Divisor seems to be under lockdown and I need the Liset's Override."

This Ordis spoke in an apologetic tone, also identifying the second voice, "My apologies Operator, I will require 5 minutes to enter range." The sound of rumbling was heard through all of the static before the identified 'Operator' spoke again, "It's fine, I'll stall her out until then."

Wordlessly Teseo sped up the audio, only resuming normal speed at the precise moment that this Ordis spoke again, "Security Override successful; ESCAPE NoOoOWw." There was a millisecond pause before Teseo broke the silence with his bored voice, "Aaaaand there's that. You got anything off of that bossu?" There was a silence that made the gremlin fein an exaggerated pout. The cool voice of the Chinese youth promptly shattered the silence, inquiring "So after this recording operative Antonio was locked out of the system, correct?"

Teseo responded with a, for once, down mood, "Yeah... ah man it's terribad what happened to my Kou-hai. What happened to our Spanish speaking branch anyway?" Letting out a barely audible sigh Tenjian responded, "It's Portuguese and the remnants of our Brazilian branch have been folded into our main force. It's a shame that Jose died in the mission, his leadership skills on and off the field were valuable. Our surviving Adept brethren though will be an asset for Eden as a whole. Speaking of assets, what are your thoughts on this pair of interlopers, Teseo?"

Leaning backwards on his gamer chair, a toothy grin came to the green haired Korean's face, "Kehehe that so called Ordis is such an edge boi. Does he honestly think that glitchy voice is cool? LOL #SpasticNerd. Although his hacking skills seem to be pretty OP..." Popping up from his nearly lying down position from his cushioned seat onto his socks and sandals wearing feet, the hacker made a declaration, "he's nowhere near as good as xXL33T_HACKER_TESEOXx!"

Letting out a near grunt at Teseo's input, Tenjian place his two cents in the matter, "It also seems that this 'Operator' is a skilled combatant, being able to hold off a Glaive enhanced Adept for 5 minutes and surviving. If not for him I am sure that we would've lost more than just 4 of the Brazilian branch's operatives." Teseo hummed in response. Tenjian continued, "The pair may be an asset for our future operations, be sure to keep an eye for any sign of them."

"Alrighty bossu," With that confirmation Teseo seated himself, preparing to resume his business on the internet. Cutting off Teseo before he could begin tapping a single key Tenjian asked, "Are the preparations for Operation Heaven's Fall ready, Teseo?"

Peppy as ever, the hacker responded, "Yep! Yep! All done and ready, boss man!"

"Good, the Operation will commence in two months' time. Agent Kaleidoscope still needs to sort a few issues and our other Operative requires some time before her and her supplies are properly inserted into Japan. Keep your wits about you, Teseo."

"Roger bossu!" With that last affirmation the call ended. The internet troll promptly went back into a hunched back posture, already recommencing his internet shenanigans.

* * *

Location: Japan

The plane ride was uneventful. If anything the Tenno was bored out of his mind throughout the entire 12 hour affair. It was boring looking at the passing skyline especially when the speeds this commercial plane could go at could easily be achieved via Archwing with a proper load out. Feeling the wheels of the airliner skid on the runway and the massive vehicle slowing to a stop, the Operator, like all other passengers on the plane, got up and retrieved the luggage they could keep with them on the flight.

Just like the plane ride, the march through the airport was uneventful. It was only unique in its tedium as officials sorted out the Operator's documents as according to said papers he was an immigrant hailing from America. Officially, the Operator's reasons for coming to Japan under alias was due to the rising violence between Adepts and Humans. The Tenno's true intentions though were to attain field intel within the heart of Sumeragi. He had been shocked at the resources and tech Sumeragi had to pull off usage of a satellite laser hence his need to perform on field reconnaissance while under the guise of a normal human. He still held little to no knowledge of the full amount of power that was hidden up Sumeragi's proverbial sleeve.

After picking out the rest of his luggage from the Baggage Carousel the slightly burdened youth began his walk to the airport entrance. Idly waiting in the crowd of fellow passengers, black grey eyes looked at the reflection of a hallway mirror. It had taken a few hours to figure out how to thoroughly suppress his Void powers. The effort had been made in order to dodge any potential sensors that may or may not sense the eldritch powers leaking from his very being within airport security. Also because contact lenses were found to be more trouble than what little they were worth. Readjusting the strap of his rucksack the Caucasian looked downwards at his ensemble of clothing. It was a typical set of street clothing: a pair of worn out sneakers, jeans, and a light grey hoodie. There was a small bit of a salmon pink t-shirt peeking out from his hoodie's collar.

After finally clearing the exit gate the Operator did a look around, spotting a Japanese woman with a sign that read, "Hayden Tenno", both in English and Katakana. That was to be his tour guide before he was dropped off at his pre rented residence. She was a young adult going by the name Tsuyu Asui. Her dress was quite typical for her job, being a suit vest dress shirt combo that slightly hugged her form and a flexible pencil skirt whose ends nearly touched her knees. Topping off the ensemble she wore a black, wide brimmed hat that had a cute green frog pin tacked into the edge of its brim.

The name "Hayden Tenno" was the alias Ordis and the Operator agreed upon. Though there were some concerns regarding how on- the- nose the surname was and what that name meant in Japanese. The Operator had argued that in a world where the head of national defense had a surname after a deity of the moon there would only be a few eyebrows raised at such a quirky last name. Besides, to his knowledge there wasn't anyone else around from the Sol System besides Ordis and him in this world.

Back to the present, Hayden followed in step with the clacking of Tsuyu's high heeled shoes. After getting past the various crowds Hayden came face to face with a tour bus along with 2 more guides and a group of 6 others, tourists and foreigners like himself probably. "Hello, I would like to thank you all for having U.A. Travel as your guide. I am Momo Yaozoru, these are my fellow tour guides, Tsuyu Asui and Ochako Uraraka. For today we will be touring…" as the bustiest of the trio of guides listed off the various locations they would be visiting, the black haired foreigner noticed one of the party members, a midget with purple hair styled in puff balls, ogling the three females. Besides throwing a disappointed look that went seemingly unnoticed by the short stack Hayden did nothing, following a moss green passenger into the tour bus.

* * *

It was now nightfall. Hayden glanced upwards at the starless sky and the untouched moon, polluted by the city's lights. Japan was nothing like Cetus or Fortuna. Yes the tour was quite fascinating towards the boy but still, despite all the dangers that lay within the Sol System there was a certain feeling of longing. Back there he, at the very least, had his fellow Tenno Operatives as close companions and trusted confidants other than Ordis. Here though there wasn't a single being like him. No shoulder to lean on. No comrades to celebrate and have antics with.

A brunette popped out of the doorway of the nearby restaurant, "Tenno san, are you not having dinner with us?" Turning fast from the sky to the young woman the youth responded, "N-no. I'll have dinner with you guys, Ochako san." After giving a rather cute acknowledgement of his response, the tour guide went back inside. The Tenno followed shortly afterwards.

Sitting down, ordering, and now before him a steaming bowl of Ramen, the disguised alien warrior inaudibly gulped. It was rather sad that he had made it a habit of sustaining off of military rations even when he resided within the Sol System. What little he remembered of the Orokin era he had been forced to do so as the "golden asses" treated the Tenno as lesser beings. This way of attaining proper nutrition carried over after awakening and was only solidified after he tried out local Cetus cuisine and his digestive system was subjected to what locals called the "Eidolon's Revenge".

After closing his eyes, taking a deep breath, mentally preparing himself of what may happen in an hour's time, and clasping his hands and chopsticks together, he announced "Itadakimasu" before diving into the bowl. The taste was quite enjoyable although there was the lingering fear of potential food poisoning. It was as he took a drink of cold water did he hear a beautiful voice singing. Turning his head towards the restaurant's TV he bore witness to a broadcast of a holographic singer with the stand out feature of sporting a pair of wings resembling the wings of a Morpho butterfly's. The song she sung had a peculiar effect. The sound of her voice washed his fears clean as he was thoroughly entranced. "Like her song, ey?" a male voice snapped Hayden from his trance. The purple haired pervert on the bus whose name escaped the dark haired teen spoke, "that's Lumen, Japan's #1 idol. She's Sumeragi's media icon. Oh how I'd love to push my face into her bosom." After that last statement Hayden wisely tuned out perverted midget's fantasies. _"Lumen huh..." _

It would be the following morning that Hayden found himself surprised as he woke with renewed energy from a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

* * *

Location: Somewhere in Japan

A scientist tripped over himself as he ran through a number of hallways within an underground complex. Frantically looking into the dimly lit corridor behind him he could almost hear the sound of laser fire in the distance. Quickly turning away the thoroughly terrified man continued his run, the sanitary and artificial construction of Sumeragi buildings falling away to underground caverns.

Passing multiple lamps hammered into the cavern walls, the scientist was met with alien ruins. Though covered in dirt, dust, and rocks the white and gold of the ruins shone brightly, beckoning the frightened human to hide within its mostly intact foundations.

After a quick navigation of the excavated structure the scientist found himself within a wide hallway, at its end an ancient gateway whose main structure had been compromised a millennia ago. It was a massive structure that wouldn't have looked out of place in one of those high budget sci fi movies the Western world held a certain fondness of.

Though out of breath the man approached a laptop on top of a cargo box that was hooked up to various machinery plugged into the surroundings, specifically to the single door leading into the room. He impatiently waited as the computer quickly booted up. The moment the computer was up and running he began to frantically type in a set of commands. As he typed out the final set, preparing to tap the 'Enter' button a near silent gun shot could be heard, shattering the computer screen and sending the scientist falling backwards in shock. Quickly turning back, the man was approached by a hooded figure who, with a white gauntleted hand, grabbed the scientist by the scruff of his collar.

A pair of dark red magenta eyes bore into the scientist's brown eyes. "What do you know of Dr. Kamizono and his projects, Dr. Kosuke?" The scientist seemed far too scared to actually answer the hooded individual's question. Huffing in frustration, the figure held Kosuke higher and, despite his shorter stature, threw the adult. Making painful contact with the crate the ruined computer had been sitting on, the scruffed up Doctor groaned. Taking unflinching aim, the aggressor shot two bullets from his silenced pistol, the shots leaving their mark on the scientist's legs.

The pain seemed to have snapped the scientist out of his fear induced freezing, his brown eyes tearing up as he looked at the vengeful eyes of his hooded attacker. "I- I don't know much of anything about Dr. Kamizono's projects! I-" before he could finish a silenced shot rang out, striking the downed scientist in the shoulder.

Screaming in pain, Kosuke, now more frantically, cried out again, "I s-swear I really don't know much of anything, I was only there to check in on his progress on Project Gunvolt! I don't know what happened that day in the lab besides Subject Takefutsu escaping!" The vengeful youth fingered his gun, pondering what the scientist said, "Project Gunvolt huh…"

Wordlessly, the gun barrel was pointed right at Dr. Kosuke's head, his brown eyes widening in fear. "Despite your near non existent role in researching Adepts you still work for Sumeragi. They are a conglomerate run by godless sinners which you are of no exception. As you pass into the next world, hear the voice of God as he whispers the name of your killer, 'Copen'".

Kosuke's breath quickened, his mouth agape as he was about to scream. Before the adult could let out as so much as a peep a final gunshot rang through the ruins, ending the life of the scientist.

Holstering his gun and walking past the blood pooling beneath the rapidly cooling corpse, Copen began to look around at the gold and white alien ruins. It was evidence of a once advanced civilization that had touched the island nation in the distant past. The place fascinated the red and white clad boy. Seeing a dust encrusted alien device with an empty, key shaped socket facing towards the door, the youth raised a gauntleted hand. So drawn was his attention that he failed to notice a sort of white, electricity- like energy that danced on the end facing towards the compromised golden gate. As his appendage brushed away the dust on the surface of the device, the energy flowed through the empty, key shaped socket and into the youth's hand causing a recoil and cry of pain that echoed through the empty cavern.

* * *

**I hurt myself writing Copen's edginess. Anyways why this chapter took so long was mostly cause I lost motivation writing this chapter. Most of this loss of steam came from writing Teseo (so you can blame that troll). Anyways this chapter is filler and also a check up on what the various factions are doing. There will be more non- action chapters as this is the part of a story where things slow down. I also want more development on Hayden's side as a good character needs depth and with depth is background. So later chapters will shuck hints at what his attitude towards things are, his history, etc. **

**For the guy that seems to misunderstand my understanding of WF lore, no Hayden did not cut himself off from his Warframe or connection to Ordis. He is still capable of summoning a Warframe to his position and I haven't gone into what Hayden has in his luggage that he snuck past airport security. **

**Yes, that was a blatant MHA cameo of several characters (NOTICE ME PRODMAN SENPAI!). Originally Hayden was to take a one on one tour with Tsuyu and it would've revealed some of the history that was written on Hayden's false forms but that wouldn't make sense. This background on his alias will be revealed probably in the next chapter or the chapter after. Hayden still needs to secure employment for the purposes he will be performing in his little spy venture. **

**As a note for future plotlines, Copen is only 13 or 14 by GV1. Hayden has poor luck involving enemies gathering intel on him. Hayden also has a penchant for underestimating things, making assumptions, and other traits he shares with someone previously mentioned. **

**Anyways, with these notes out of the way, as always write any critiques on character writing, story writing, etc within the reviews. Address any blatant inconsistency with lore that I may accidentally end of writing up so I can fix it. With that out of the way, till then and have a good day**


	9. Chapter 9: Interviews and Plotting

**A filler chapter again. All characters belong to their respective owners. **

* * *

Location: Somewhere in Japan

The pouring of water on his bare body soothed the white haired boy. Rubbing soap into every nook and cranny with the knowledge that it was thoroughly scrubbing out any dirt or other contaminants that weren't washed away by the downpour of water gave a certain satisfaction to him.

After every last bit of soap had been purged from his body and down the shower drain did Copen finally shut off the water. Steam fogged up the mirrors and other reflective surfaces nearby and in this mist Copen was drying himself with a towel. While ruffling his hair to get it as dry as he could, a knock caused him to stop mid movement. "Young master, your armor has been disassembled for easier analysis and repairs. Also the data you had collected within the ruins has been processed and is waiting for evaluation."

There was a brief pause before the boy spoke to his loyal maid, "Thank you, Nori. I will be at my lab shortly, give me 10 minutes." With a cordial "I understand" the maid left.

As the young teenager dressed himself he contemplated what had happened a few hours before. The pain he felt from getting nearly fried by the ambient energy that had been stuck within that strange device had been excruciating. Many of his suit's internal systems had been compromised by the energy surge much to his anger though at the very least he had been left strangely unharmed despite the pain he had gone through.

Copen recalled how Nori forcibly laid him down the moment he had gotten back to the rendezvous point, forcibly stripping the armor off of him (much to his embarrassment) to perform a quick physical evaluation. Physically it was as if nothing had happened to him despite the state of his armor saying otherwise. This troubled Copen greatly.

Putting on the last buttons of his pajama shirt and readjusting his loose sleep pants, Copen made his way to the door. It mattered little now, hypothesizing what had happened before, for he would be taking a closer look at the state of his prized armor. He also had a new lead to follow in finding out more about his father's untimely demise with this "Project Gunvolt". Though Dr. Kosuke had been a pain to track down with the reward being ultimately disappointing, the diseased man would at least be a stepping stone in fulfilling the young crusader's grudge.

A pale hand, raw from the hot water that washed over it minutes before, went to turn the knob. Movement caught the boy's red magenta eyes. Turning quickly, Copen saw himself in the mirror. Shaking his head, the young Kamizono exited the bathroom "_I must be tired"_. Unknown to him, his reflection lingered in the mirror. The eyes of the reflection glowed while a smile, uncharacteristic to Copen, spread on its lips. In an instant, the reflection was gone but a strange feeling took hold of Copen that didn't leave him until he went to sleep a few hours later.

* * *

2 Days Later...

The clack of his rented dress shoes on pavement were akin to the ticking of a clock. A clock that ticked down towards the time of execution for a prisoner on death row. Pointlessly readjusting the too uncomfortable tie, Hayden nervously gulped as he walked into the building before him.

It had been 2 days since he had arrived inside of Japan and a day after he was done touring a small portion of the island nation. This upcoming ordeal was one in which he had zero experience with. From the Lua trials to the Mastery Rank tests there was at least some sort of simulation of what was to come. They were also trials with which he was VERY familiar with due to the common hazards that lay scattered about in the Sol System. But those were all based upon physical prowess and skill rather than the crafting of words. He was a TENNO, a member of an ancient warrior caste, not someone like Ballas who could honey his words to get his way. His place was on the battlefield, NOT in the realm of socializing and words.

Seating himself on many of the vacant chairs in the waiting room, the Tenno sank into the cushions of the chair, fingering the envelope in his hands. Despite how soft the cushions were, the seat did nothing to soothe his nerves. He fidgeted as he checked the time on a digital phone he had gotten many months ago when testing how truly advanced this world's technology was. Hayden counted that it was the thirteenth time that he had checked the phone's time. A female voice rang through the mind numbingly long wait. "Hayden Tenno, the representative will see you now."

It was showtime. The teen made his way to his first job interview.

* * *

Hours Later, Location: JNN Backroom

There was a good 10 minutes before he was to go onto live television and give out his quarterly update on Japan's national defense, calculated Nova Tsukuyomi. The light amount of makeup to make himself presentable on live television and to conceal any potential perspiration that may appear on his visage were in place. Now Nova sat, waiting for when he was to be called up to make his speech. He highly doubted that many of the population would pay complete attention to what he had to say. His and by extension, Sumeragi's, approval ratings were at an all time high and the Japanese populace felt completely safe underneath Kamishiro's protective barrier. The only thing left for the unofficial Head of National Defense to do was to rehearse his speech. Such practice though was a bit unnecessary, for the purple haired boy had completely memorized and practiced a week in advance. There would be nothing less but perfection from someone of his background.

It was in the middle of staring at the mirror while rehearsing his speech did a troubled Jota approach. For this event, as a precautionary measure, the well decorated colonel was Nova's personal bodyguard due to an exemplary combat record along with his complete mastery over his light Septima. Such measures were rather unnecessary though as Nova himself possessed one of, if not the strongest Septima in the world, unrivaled in its destructive capabilities. He could defend himself no problem against anything other powers could throw his way.

"Tsukuyomi-sama, I have arrived with grave news. Site O has been compromised. Dr. Kosuke has been assassinated on site." One of Nova's eyebrows raised in response to the grim news. "How long ago was this?" asked Tsukuyomi. Wordlessly Jota handed a tablet to the ever calm youth as the Lieutenant began to recite the autopsy on the unfortunate Doctor's body. "Two days ago. He was shot thrice, two in the legs and one in the head. The single shot to the head was fatal. Along with his death it is apparent that the ruins were vandalized, mostly the entrance where it is apparent that a firefight had occurred. The fighting causing irreparable damage to the ruins. The aftermath wasn't discovered sooner due to the Site's isolated location and apparent tampering with our communication lines."

"Hn. Interesting. Jota-kun," the green haired young man seemed to straighten his already attentive posture, somehow, "you may leave me. I will go over these reports later in more detail. I do have a speech scheduled soon."

The Light Septima user merely nodded his head, "Of course, sir. I will report to you at the appointed time, Tsukuyomi sama." With those final words the man left the backroom.

"_Site O, ey?"_ contemplated the boy. The site was kept tightly under wraps. It was a sight that would be every Cryptozooligist's wet dream. Site O's main trait is being blatant evidence of aliens appearing within Japan long before the Heian period. The ancient structures were relatively untouched by the ravages of time, even when evidence of a history of violent natural disasters rendering it in its underground state were proven by the various archaeologists investigating the ruins. To hear that it had lost one of its head doctors and having a few portions damaged was worrisome. It was these thoughts that led towards his personal interest in that site's investigation. It was the single, solid lead on the 'alien' life forms that were found in that sunken space ship.

Merak, along with a few researchers managed to decipher a few lines of coding and text from the ship's computer systems. It resulted in Sumeragi finally finding the name of these would- be invaders as 'Grineer'. From the ancient texts that could be found within the ruins the same words 'Grineer' showed up again. There was reason to believe that the calligraphy found in Site O could be the progenitor language of whatever was found onboard the vaguely crustacean-like spaceship.

Evidence of this connection also came in the form of fossilized remains. Slashes and what seemed to be bullet and scorch marks dotted the ruins. These were evidence of an ancient battle that had taken place long ago, seemingly with powers that held similar destructive capabilities as modern weaponry and potentially Septima powers. This was the most fascinating part as the mentioned remains were of armor sets. Though ruined by battle damage and time, they held many similarities to the Grineer found onboard that formerly space- faring vessel. It was this connection in design did Nova draw the conclusion that the strange ruins were from the same different world that the Grineer ship hailed from.

And just like the Grineer ship having residual energy readings similar to those found in the arctic crash site, the mysterious being that had awakened and massacred the Sumeragi forces in that cold wasteland was probably from the same world as the Grineer. It truly fascinated the purple haired young man as to what that alien world was like and how that black clad individual was connected to the deformed, near humans on that water logged ship.

Thinking of the peculiar energy readings, there were also traces of them found in Brazil's _Grande Divisor. _That joint construction project and secret research facility held bits of the energy readings found in both the Arctic base and on the exterior of the Grineer ship. It was with this that Nova guessed that the mysterious alien had surfaced in that base. The energy probably manifesting to combat the plant Septima user experimented there. Humming to himself, Nova delved deeper into his hypothesizing as the strange 'burp' in the computer systems within that facility floated to the surface of his mind. It was a strange, heavy handed hard reset that lifted much of the lockdown protocols causing at least one of the _Eden _operatives infiltrating the facility to be killed by Sumeragi forces. Was this third party hacker related to the awakened ebony alien?

"Tsukuyomi-sama!" the purple haired boy was startled from his thoughts as a JNN assistant barged into the backroom, "sir, you are live in 2 minutes. Are you ready?"

"Yes, of course" responded the prodigal youth. Getting up and making sure his face, hair, and clothes were in proper order, Nova headed out to the broadcast room at a brisk pace.

* * *

Location: Apartment 325

Taking off his tie and business suit, Hayden could only let out a long sigh as he sat himself down on a chair. The interview was horrifyingly nerve wracking as the critical, glasses wearing interviewer scrutinized everything about the black haired youth. The young man was used to being scrutinized by the likes of the Lotus and Teshin but there was a degree of… less pressure while underneath the visage of a Warframe.

After a moment of rest, the black haired youth picked up a TV controller and turned on the television. He needed some sort of sound to listen to as he underwent the tedium of unpacking his luggage.

Kicking off his shoes, Hayden flipped through the channels as, at the same time, he analyzed how much of his luggage he was to rummage and sort out in his studio apartment. After a minute of switching channels from live dramas to cartoons did the Tenno stop at JNN. It was a quarterly update regarding the security of the country by a representative of the Sumeragi Group, the corporation mostly responsible for providing tech for the country's national defense. It was curiosity that drove Hayden to listen in on what propaganda the television would spew. That and the other television programs demanded more than just one's ears to properly listen to.

Unzipping the luggage bag, the Tenno began the methodical process of separating the concealment devices that he used to get his luggage through airport security from his actual luggage. "Without further ado, our representative, Nova Tsukuyomi." Setting down the mechanical components for a concealed communicator, the Tenno took in the visage of this representative. "_So young." _It was one thing to see images online about the prodigal preteen who found himself in such a prestigious position, it was another to see the boy on live television. There wasn't a single hint of awe in the Tenno's bones as he took in the youthful face. "_What sort of conditioning and suffering did this boy have to go through to take on such a position?" _thought the Operator. There was only pity as the weight of a corporation and its relation with the government was upon this youth's shoulders.

"It is with gratitude that I speak before this glorious nation on live television on our country's state of affairs and the progress of my work…" Setting the components for the more espionage focused tools aside, Hayden dug deeper into the case, bringing out a metallic chassis. "Our ongoing weapons research to insure the safety of our civilians is still bearing fruit. No nation can currently challenge us as Sumeragi's scientists are hard at work, day in day out to create a better future for all that live in this nation. The threat of unhinged Adepts will eventually come to an end as technology shall close the gap between those differentiated by the circumstances of their birth and genetics..."

Taking out several bits of wire and other components, the Tenno placed them one by one on a nearby table. "This year alone we have allowed 300 immigrants into our secure country. Upstanding citizens that serve as a beacon of hope in this tumultuous world torn apart by those who seek to abuse their supernatural powers such as the Adept supremacist group, Eden." The trained killer nearly snorted at the mention of Japan's immigration system. The modicum of humour that the teen had found was how easy it was to win over those sorting out the list of immigrants seeking refuge in the most advanced nation on Earth. They prioritize the sob stories of 'escaping turmoil born from Adept conflict' over all other reasons for immigration. It was all to enhance the government's stance against the rights of Adepts. Such was their devotion to this agenda that even a shady background, such as his forged identity, could get past their screening.

The Operator recalled the look of pity from a screening officer who had checked the teen's papers, "Hayden Tenno. Age 16. Orphaned from the young age of 10 from Adept terrorism. You escaped the US due to a recent increase in bombings near the neighborhood your orphanage resides… You poor child. I will personally guarantee your safe passage into Japan. May your stay be free of barbaric Adepts."

Ironically quite a number of higher ups within Japan's military were Adepts themselves. "_Though they are all still rather young to be in such a profession, were they not given another choice?"_ A frown tugged at Hayden's mouth as he thought deeper into that potential scenario. The black haired youth shook those thoughts away. Sumeragi and Japan's backdoor dealings will reveal itself to him in the coming months. Keeping a single ear listening to the TV, the Tenno focused upon the mechanical components laid out on his table. The machinery that lay before him were pieces of a handheld fabricator. Basically it was a repurposed Carrier Sentinel that he had once used extensively until it was struck down by a rogue Chroma. The male cringed as phantom pain that crept up over his right eye socket. After taking a moment to recompose himself, the Tenno began his reconstruction work in earnest.

As Nova's speech rounded to its end, the fabricator was complete. It was nothing like the Orbiter Foundry in creating everything from weapons, vehicles, and Warframes, but it was still useful for the few missions such as the one he was currently undertaking. With a flick of a switch, lights began to light up on the contraption much to the grey eyed teen's delight. Over the course of this mission it would be necessary to construct bits of machinery such as Ciphers and other such spy tools for gathering information. It was prudent that Hayden had autonomy from the various black markets of this world for he held no desire to allow the primitives on the planet to have access to such advanced technology. It was also much more convenient to not go through several private dealings to obtain such common resources like ammunition from a third party.

Setting aside the tool, the Tenno got back onto his two feet. Taking a brief stock of his clothes, funds, and food within the apartment fridge, the Operator took off his formal clothes in favor of street clothing. Despite it being 8 PM where most would be making preparations for bed, the black haired youth wanted to gather more information on his surroundings. The tour he went on was quite comprehensive on all of the landmarks in this city and the ones adjacent but those were just landmarks and popular public spaces. If he were to devote himself to his illegal activities, he'll have to be accustomed to both the public and seedy sections of the city. The location of his apartment was an embodiment of this mindset. It was part of an apartment complex positioned right next to the Red Light District, or what most locals called "Sinner's Row". There was some worry on part of one of the tour guides when she found out about his choice of living, saying that despite how cheap it was, it wasn't a wise idea for an immigrant to live there.

He had politely dismissed her concerns. Hayden Tenno knew how to defend himself well enough. Idly, he twirled a switch blade before pocketing it. Even if his knife skills were to fail him, a Void enhanced shove would also be enough to break bone.

Pocketing his wallet, which contained a few bills of money, cards, and identification, Hayden left his apartment to the ground level below.

* * *

**As always any feedback, critiques, spelling errors, etc. are welcomed in the reviews. After the next chapter things will pick up again. Gunvolt will make his debut in this story soon. **

**Edit: there was a story inconsistency that I caught after uploading the chapter. Reread Nova's section if you read the chapter when it first came out. **


	10. Chapter 10: Puppetry

**A prelude for what's to come. All characters belong to their respective owners. Without further ado, Chapter 10**

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Hayden allowed himself a small breath as he laid the stack of packages on the back of his delivery scooter. It really was convenient that he had landed this kind of job with his interview 2 weeks ago. Originally it was just a bid to maintain his cover as an immigrant along with having a stable base of operations in this foreign country. Now though, as a courier, he had an excuse to travel all across the city and scout out Sumeragi locations. After starting up his scooter, the Tenno began his rounds.

Though traffic was a drag at times, his memorization of the entire city map along with a decent sense of direction made getting all of his packages on time a cinch. A small smile graced the youth's lips as he felt the cool breeze against his exposed forearms. After turning a corner, his target was before him. It was an elderly couple's house.

After successfully delivering the box, which presumably contained cooking utensils, and a round of thank yous from the couple, Hayden was on his way back to his company's local delivery station. Parking his scooter and securing it, the youth walked straight through the entrance. The clerk checked his employee's ID, nodding his head as Hayden went to check in.

After reaching the check in room, a man wearing a Sumeragi uniform came, inspecting the list of packages Hayden had delivered. "Good job, kid. Not bad for your first week on the job."

A smile glowed on the 16 year old's face, "Thank you, sir! I try not to disappoint." The older male chuckled before handing a new list to the boy. "Your next round of deliveries is right here. Get them done by nightfall, alright?" Nodding an affirmative, the courier boy left. It was also convenient that the delivery company he worked for was a subsidiary of Sumeragi. Hayden had had a good laugh after doing research on what job he had landed from his nerve wracking first job interview.

As Hayden inspected each location, charting a mental pathway, a chill ran up the youth's spine. Turning on the balls of his feet, dark grey eyes darted around the hallway area he had found himself in. It was then that he caught sight of a mop of black hair. A face sporting typical caucasian features greeted him with a face splitting smile. Eyes that warped and twisted with the colors of the void met Hayden's dark grey orbs. The Tenno was looking at the spitting image of himself. "_**Hey kiddo…" **_The star child's eyes narrowed as he locked onto The Man in the Wall's form. "_What the hell do you want?" _Hayden asked himself.

Uncharacteristically, the doppelganger slowly crept around the corner and walked away. Never in the Tenno's encounters with that enigmatic being did the Void entity actually walk away from his sight. Growling under his breath, Hayden cautiously followed the doppleganger, carefully maneuvering himself out of sight of as many cameras as possible. It was apparent to the Operator that it wanted him to follow it.

Hallway after hallway, corner after corner the entity would beckon the Tenno. It was at a certain point that Hayden figured out exactly where the Man in the Wall was leading him. They were heading to the building's database. It would be highly suspicious if the new courier were to be found snooping about the place, especially since they were an immigrant. With this line of thinking, the Tenno began to slow his pace. With a small amount of focus, Hayden's eyes became aglow. The power of the Void responded to the boy's calls. Now every time there were cameras positioned that made it impossible for someone to get past without being seen, Hayden merely avoided them entirely via usage of Void Mode.

It was at the approach of the server room that the Man in the Wall finally stopped. Seating himself comfortably on a console station, the entity beckoned Hayden over. Hayden approached with trepidation. There was a camera positioned somewhere behind the large servers. Hiding behind the server, the Tenno watched as the room's single camera moved its sight to somewhere else. Quickly shaking a pant leg, Hayden caught a small device: a cipher. The doppelganger yawned as the black haired Tenno plugged the cipher into the console. In under a second, the cipher's lights blinked a green color. Unplugging the device, Hayden hid back behind the server and looked at the data chip. He had plans later for stealing the delivery data from the server room before, now those plans have been accelerated from the Man in the Wall's questionable motivations. Well, Hayden wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and thus pocketed the device. It was then that the Void entity came around the corner, his legs straight, his arms folded behind him, and his back bent forward. It was peeking at Hayden with that smile that didn't belong on the Tenno's face. In a calm, imitation of a certain voice, the spectre uttered, "_**Mission accomplished, Tenno…" **_Hayden's anger flared up as the entity silently disappeared in a flash of eldritch energies.

Exhaling and letting his built up anger be released into the air, Hayden recalled the route the Man in the Wall took him through and left the area. It would be around sunset when Hayden would be done with his assigned packages. They were the last things he was to ship for the day. The moment he was given the go ahead, the Tenno went back to his apartment.

* * *

After taking a shower then setting his dinner's ingredients on the kitchen table, Hayden tore his eyes from the online cooking guide on his phone and towards the small laptop he had bought a few days prior. Plugging in the cipher, the alien warrior read through the list of packages to be delivered. At first he thought nothing of it as they were the typical orders. What drew his attention and shocked him was in the more confidential deliveries. Widened dark grey eyes honed on a single image. It was a vial containing a black and red ichor. There was no way that the Tenno could mistake what it was he was seeing. That special package scheduled to be delivered tomorrow at midnight, was Kuva.

* * *

Location: Unknown

A preteen huffed with exertion as he straightened his posture and began to regulate his breathing. There was a clapping sound. Long blonde hair tied in a braid whipped around as its owner turned towards the source of the noise. White hair that gleamed with a blueish sheen was the first thing that came to the boy's azure eyes' gaze. "Good job GV. That performance was truly exemplary." The identified GV beamed at the praise given to him by his father figure, a man named Asimov.

"Although… training simulations can only take you so far..." The boy tilted his head, silently beckoning for Asimov to go on as GV hadn't regained his breath just yet, "It is only necessary that you prove your skills with that Septima of yours in a live mission. Don't worry, I will handle fighting the bulk of the enemies in this mission. You are in charge of the most important part, stealing a small package. The full details are on this tablet. You take the rest of the day off, alright? The mission is tomorrow and I wouldn't want you to be burned out whilst doing it." Asimov turned to the side, "Do not worry, this mission will be off the record. The rest of QUILL need not know of your existence as an operative, yet." With that short briefing done, Asimov set down a tablet and left the training room.

Finally having stabilized his breathing, GV walked over to the table, one hand grasping a water bottle and the other the tablet. The boy quickly read the displayed contents. Surrounding the boy was a training room littered with the scorched, torn apart, and pock-marked-with bullet holes remains of training dummies.

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**This is very brief, serving as a time skip tool and introducing the main players for the next probably two chapters. For timeline purposes, this story is less than a month away from the Eden attack on Kamishiro**


	11. Chapter 11: The Azure Neophyte

**I'm on a roll it seems. All characters belong to their respective owners. Chapter 11**

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An entrant spark streaks through the darkness, cleaving through a subterranean realm with its destructive radiance. Despite his prowess, a wraith cut from the darkest shadow bars the way out of an underworld bathed in flickering crimson light...

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Black boots landed quietly on cold cement. Azure eyes darted around before GV advanced towards the building complex in quiet haste. With a small flash of electricity, the blonde weaved just out of any security guard or security camera's vision. The speed boost was all thanks to his Azure Thunderclap Septima. It was the very first discovered and one of the strongest due to its versatility. The facet the 13 year old QUILL Operative was using being enhanced speed.

It was at the approach of a locked hangar door that finally gave the predominantly blue-uniformed pre teen pause. Drawing forth a bulky pistol from a waist holster, his Dart Leader, the teen charged his free hand with electricity. Pistol at the ready, the blonde called forth sky- blue electricity that coursed through the hangar door's console. Another facet to his electricity based Septima and what made it one of the strongest psychic abilities in this modern age, the ability to manipulate technology. Mechanical locks on the bay doors were undone as a small gap presented itself for GV to slip through. Slip through he did, entering the minimally lit package area. It was currently midnight and much of the workers had long since left. The only people in the building complex being the night shift security guards and a few Sumeragi robots.

A second flash of electricity closed the hangar door shut. GV continued as he cautiously scouted the entire storage bay. One of his hands near instinctively went to the device nuzzled in his right ear. "_No, Asimov strictly stated that I must maintain radio silence until I reach the target area." _Remembering the map format that was in the mission tablet, the blonde forged on. Silently dodging the variety of robots and the occasional security personnel, the preteen eventually exitted the hangar and into the hallway proper.

The hallways were confusing, but diligent study last night and earlier that day kept GV on track. Dodging the variety of security cameras, the blonde eventually made it to an elevator door. Aside from the total number of 3 storage bays on the surface of this delivery station, there was a single underground storage bay. Smaller than the others, it was a repurposed bunker that originated from a war long past. Within this storage bay contained the most important and confidential items. Among these items was the mysterious package that was GV's objective in this off-the-record test mission.

Keeping to the shadows, GV finally tapped his communication device. In a curt, professional voice, the Adept spoke, "Gunvolt here, reporting to Sheeps Leader, do you copy?"

A return response was near instant, "Sheeps Leader, I copy. Are you at the designated point?" The blonde responded to Asimov's inquiry, "Affirmative. I am on standby. The designated elevator is in front of me." "Good, I will begin my assault. Remember the mission details GV, once you enter the underground bay and I begin my assault, the elevator will be on lockdown. To mitigate attention from the security personnel on the way out, you are to use the abandoned tunnel system that was sealed off when this delivery station was first built." "I understand, I read and memorized the mission details." "Good, you are to commence your search and extract mission as of right now. Good luck GV, Sheeps Leader out." Closing his eyes for a moment, silently praying the best for his adoptive father, the youth finally utteredd "Gunvolt, out." Closing the communication line, GV launched a stream of electricity into the elevator's console, unlocking it and bypassing the need for a security card. The youth stepped into the elevator and directed it to go down.

* * *

Outside…

"Hey, it's way past business hours, buddy. Are you even listening?" A pair of cap- wearing security personnel were investigating a suspicious van that had parked itself outside of the delivery station. The windows were completely opaque, rendering it impossible to see who was within the van. As the security personnel began making more and more aggressive motions, such as going from knocking on the windows to attempting to get the driver seat door open, a sun-glasses wearing man in the shadows hovered his thumb over a trigger.

Feeling the night wind flow through his white hair, Asimov looked down at the parking lot below unnoticed. It was fortified by Sumeragi personnel, that he could tell despite their best efforts to hide themselves. The number of cement barricades and armored vehicles in the dark were a dead giveaway. Normally he would've done this mission in a more 'low key' manner but that wasn't his job. This would be an excellent experience for Gunvolt, getting used to acts of infiltration and sabotage. Yes... with this mission Asimov would be a step closer to molding Gunvolt into the perfect Adept to lead the masses. These numbers though, Gunvolt was not yet ready to handle them. For that reason Asimov played the role of distraction. Speaking of numbers, the amount he could immediately tell from his perch was rather astounding for a single package. A small smile tugged at Asimov's lips. There was an anticipation within Sheeps Leader towards what exactly the package was. As long as GV did his job, he would do his and whatever secrets Sumeragi was keeping from him he would find out soon enough.

Taking a single breath to wash away his feelings of distraction, Asimov's thumb pressed down. A distinct beeping was heard from the distant van when suddenly a large explosion rocked the facility. Immediately the domed visage of Sumeragi soldiers came out of the proverbial woodwork, their laser rifles at the ready. As for the man whose call sign was Sheeps Leader, he loaded a magazine into his E.A.T.R. Sniper Rifle. Taking a peak from his cover behind the ventilation tubes of a nearby building, the man came up with his firearm. With precise aim, a bullet whizzed straight through a shield carrying commander, the bullet going straight through his body armor and into the armored vehicle behind him. That single bullet detonated while lodged in the vehicle's fuel tanks. The resulting blast knocked several personnel right off their feet and onto their faces.

"The shooter is up there!" With Asimov spotted from the glint of his sniper's scope, the man was on the move. Laser fire melted the tops of the building as more men along with mechanical drones mobilized. Holstering the cumbersome rifle, Asimov took out a better suited weapon for the upcoming job, the ORSO Assault Rifle. Switching to its automatic mode, bursts of bullet fire forced a number of Sumeragi soldiers down as Sheeps Leader boldly advanced towards the mobilizing forces. Silver drones hovered in the air, firing lasers that upturned pieces of cement. Effortlessly the long-haired man avoided these attacks, responding with assault rifle fire which tore the silver chassis of these drones apart. Drones that flew on twin propeller blades began to lock onto Asimov's fast approaching form. They didn't even manage a single shot before they were taken down.

The soldiers and common security personnel were not idle, an alarm was set off, locking down the facility. Several grenadiers assembled into a line, providing cover for the common soldiers. As they began taking aim the lone shooter veered to cover behind a cement blockade. Already taking a pin out of a grenade, Asimov chucked it over. The grenadiers stood their ground as their shields took the explosion. What they weren't expecting was another grenade, this time launched from the underslung grenade launcher on the ORSO, sailing above their heads. The line was taken down with a few dead and the rest wounded.

The whirring of mechanisms reached the white haired man's ears as portions of the ground folded away, revealing underground pockets containing Sentry Units wielding chainsaws and blaster cannons. Nothing changed for Asimov as he reloaded and fired. The firefight continued for a few more minutes before the soldiers began to pull back much to Asimov's consternation. He was about to advance further just to provoke the security forces more but loud stomping stopped the man in his tracks.

Light reflected off of the heavy duty armor plates of 4 "Mantis" Units. Their shoulder mounted missile silos collectively opened, unloading their payload in Asimov's direction. Just barely the QUILL operative dodged the series of explosions. "Tch," his eyes narrowed upon seeing the Mantis Units tracking his movements, their arm vulcans whirring. It was then that while running did Asimov's free hand go up to his sunglasses. "_I'll have to abstain from using such bold stratagems in future missions with GV taking to the field,"_ Sheeps Leader thought to himself. With a swipe, the sunglasses came off and the man's eyes began to glow an azure color.

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Underground…

Klaxons blared through the underground floor as turrets popped up from every nook and cranny. Despite the plasma fire sailing through the narrow passageways, Gunvolt persisted. Effortlessly dodging whilst leaving behind a trail of electricity, the preteen fired from his DT Leader in bursts. Each dart struck a turret dead on causing minimal damage. It was only when he just passed by the last of the set of turrets did a dome of pure electricity emit from the blonde. From the dome streams of electricity fanned out, focused on each tagged turret. With the sound of consecutive explosions, the Adept sprinted forward.

This pattern of destruction continued as GV ran through a series of corridors. His advance was only stopped by the occasional shutter door. Those doors' surface held slots for turrets to fold out from. To a regular infiltrator, these doors would've proven a massive hindrance. To a Septima user like GV, they were a mere nuisance.

After blasting a pesky shutter off its hinges, the long haired blonde came upon his target's location. It was a room filled to the brim with packages and the like sorted onto shelves. Against the red light of the alarms, much of the room's contents were hardly visible. The preteen resigned himself to searching through the room and began to do so with haste.

After a minute or two of grabbing, inspecting, and tossing aside various packages GV came upon a small briefcase. Recalling the mission details, the rookie QUILL operative identified the case as his target. Carefully applying his electricity, the lock on the case unlocked, revealing its contents: a vial containing a red and black ichor. Nodding to himself, GV got up and began another run.

Turning several corners, GV found himself in the older parts of the building complex. Bits of grime and dust were visible on the walls, the amount increasing further as the youth ran ahead. His target lay towards a point in the underground floor where directly underneath was a portion of the ancient tunnel system. Asimov had given the boy a small charge which would dig a hole straight into that tunnel system.

No one came down these portions of the delivery station's underground floor. For that reason this area was subject to much neglect and why no one bothered to install defense measures found in the more used parts of this floor. Despite that however, something forced the Azure Striker on edge. A chill ran up his spine as he ran forward, the only lighting being the blinking red lights of dusty alarms.

Rounding a corner, Gunvolt stared dead ahead at a dark, long winding hallway. The preteen paused not from some fear of the dark, but from the sound of footsteps echoing in the cold darkness ahead. Movement drew the blonde's azure gaze towards a black figure. From a distance, GV knew that the being stood more than a foot taller than him. As the being strode forward into the nearby alarm's crimson light, the Azure Thunderclap user caught a better look at the being's frame.

It was only right to call the thing before GV an it, for though it held the shape of a well muscled, human male; from head to toe it was covered in a thick, black skin. There was no face, only a pear shaped shape. Two pieces of fabric were on this thing's person. One wrapped around its neck like a scarf and another hanging between the humanoid's legs. Besides those accessories there were metallic gold armor bits spread throughout the being's forearms, thighs, and head. Their color being reflected as blood orange from the persistent blinking lights. A soft blue glow that persisted through the darkness and contrasted the blinking alarm lights highlighted the contours of the being's body.

The shape stood passively, meeting GV's stare with its own. In spite of the shape's relaxed posture, a sort of aura wreathed the being. There was a shaking in the blonde's right arm, his gun arm. His left hand gripped his right forearm, steadying the latter. The preteen found his breath being slightly shaky as he looked down at the still passive figure. Raising his DT Leader, GV had the being in his gun's sights. "_What is that? A Sumeragi experiment? What is this feeling? A-am I panicking?" _It was when a sword materialized in the unknown's hands did the blonde fire.

Casually flicking the blade, the electrically charged darts fell to the ground harmlessly. It was then that the tall being began to run. Instinctively, GV backed off. With his Septima, the Adept managed to keep out of the unknown being's reach. Firing again, ebony warrior deflected the darts. "_If I can't hurt him, I might as well run!" _Since the only viable escape route for the kid was through the pathway that this black thing came from, GV made the bold decision of charging right at the taller combatant. Ducking underneath a swipe that would've clotheslined him if he were any slower, the blonde sprinted past the alien being. This was stopped instantly, for in a surprising show of speed, the being sprung off a wall and leapt over the running GV and into his path. In response to the obstruction GV repeated the same burst fire shot with the same results. Unlike before, however, the Adept focused within himself. Drawing forth a dome of electricity, the boy concentrated and coalesced balls of focused lightning. The preteen roared, "Lightning that flickers and purges all that violates the realm! Astrashere!"

The focused balls of light crashed into the ground and walls in front of the ebony foe. Smoke and electricity blinded both GV and the unknown. Despite this, the preteen blind fired several darts in his sword wielding foe's general direction. The darts GV fired were special in that before firing, a bit of his hair from his braided hair is implanted in each bullet. Whenever a bullet makes contact with a target, the electromancer can sense the bullet landing its mark. They were also a focus for his potent lightning. It was this sense that told him two of his shots made their mark. A dome of electricity appeared around GV. Lightning coursed through and dispersed the dust cloud Astrasphere had kicked up, allowing the blonde to see his foe writhing in pain.

"_So it's not invincible after all! I can win this." _was the thought process running through the QUILL operative's head. Despite the pain, the being stopped its spasming. Its muscles were tensed up as again it ran despite the untold number of volts running through its body. Shocked, the boy began to run backwards. Folding inward on itself as it ran, the sword wielding warrior let loose a rage filled, bone chilling roar. A ludicrously bright light bathed the hallway, blinding Gunvolt. As his eyes struggled to recover, GV felt a hand grasp his neck in a vice like grip. Then the preteen felt himself getting lifted. Suddenly, his head met the cold, metallic floor. In that split second of initial impact, the Adept lost consciousness.

* * *

The Adept would next awaken to shaking. He felt something wrapped tightly around his head and jostling from someone carrying him. Blearily, the preteen opened up his eyes to a blurry, white and sky blue figure. The figure was carrying him. Before long though, whatever strength allowed for the boy to regain consciousness left him. Gunvolt fell back into unconsciousness.

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**Leave a review if you so please. Critiques on story development, grammar, etc. are welcomed. Have a good day**

**As of 8/11/2019 I have updated the first handful of chapters, making edits and changing up perspective. There have also been corrections to certain inconsistencies such as Jota's rank and the like. You are free to read them at your leisure. I may go back over the Grande Divisor arc at a later date. Have a good day**


	12. Chapter 12: Recovery and Request

**Here is chapter 12. Keep you eyes peeled for any inconsistencies and point them out please. All characters belong to their respective owners, without further ado chapter 12.**

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Asimov allowed himself a sigh of relief after tucking Gunvolt to bed. He had ensured the pillows were comfortable enough and kept himself from jostling the boy. After all, the Adept did suffer a concussion. The cause of this injury also perplexed Asimov. He had ruled out Sumeragi after finding his adoptive child lacking in any sort of tracking device on his person. There were no other injuries besides head trauma. There were also no Sumeragi operatives to his knowledge stationed at the delivery station and if there were, they would've either killed his protege or worse, taken him back into Sumeragi custody. This mysterious third party had attacked and spared Gunvolt, going so far as to take him to safety within the shadows of a nearby alleyway. It was apparent that it was benign and seemingly didn't care about leaving behind a witness. Whether or not this was true would be found out after Gunvolt recovered and woke up.

What frustrated the young man though was how Gunvolt was missing the package he was supposed to extract. Again more details would be found out once Gunvolt woke up though Asimov hypothesized that this stranger stole the package from Gunvolt. The question was what was in there and what the stranger's intentions were. The sound of static electricity reached the white haired man's ears before subsiding completely. "_There's no use in getting angry now. With the Azure Thunderclap Septima Gunvolt will be conscious and coherent by tomorrow. I'll have my answers then." _

Schooling his features, Asimov left the room and strode into a dimly lit room. The only source of light within the room were a set of monitors, all of them displaying something. His blue shaded eyes were honed on a single monitor, one that was connected with Sumeragi phone lines.

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Ages Ago…

Tears stained his cheeks as his proxy body lay splayed in a heap. The rumbling of the Bulkor was the only assurance that he was off the battlefield and towards the relative safety of an Orokin Tower. Away from the Sentients… away from the Infestation… away from his dying brethren.

…

…

…

There was silence as he impassively stared at the reflection of a preteen sporting black hair and a buzzcut. Within the meditation chamber there wasn't a single sound but the single fountain of water. Heralded by a yell, the watery mirror distorted into visual nonsense.

"IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT…!"

He swiped at the reflection, spilling water on the cold, white marble floor.

"WHY COULDN'T YOU MAKE IT IN TIME?!"

He punched at the reflection, not caring for the pain he felt as his knuckles made contact with the metal floor beneath the shallow water.

"WHY WERE YOU SO USELESS?!"

Footsteps echoed in the chamber from behind him. He ignored them, uncaring if an Orokin saw and sneered at him for his weakness.

"WHY?! WHY?! WHY?!"

With a roar, the fountain's water evaporated in the face of a wave of heat born from the Void. After that display of power, the youth began to catch his breath. Almost in a whisper, the boy asked himself between breaths, "Why was I the only one to survive where everyone else died? Why did you all have to leave me…?"

A reassuring hand making contact with his right shoulder startled the grieving boy. Looking up, grey eyes colored by Eldritch energies widened as he saw a familiar face now clad in a blue-ish purple helmet. "M-Margulis…?"

* * *

Dark grey eyes opened to their owner's body being pelted by a stream of water. "_What am I doing, sleeping while standing and while taking a shower?" _Finishing up on his wash, the teen shut off the water and made a grab for a nearby towel.

Hayden dried his wet locks after getting dressed in sweatpants and a loose T-shirt. He clutched his head as he recalled the blonde child he had spared 2 hours before. Those eyes. He recalled those same eyes from the Vent Kids, Nakak. There was something else, too. An impulse. One he felt when other Tenno were involved.

_"I'm being foolish." _The child had seen. The Operator had recognized that outfit and the identification. That child was a part of the Pro Adept Faction QUILL. With him still alive, he would tell his superiors. Would this be a risk to Hayden's wellbeing?

The Operator looked down, down at his pristine hands. To him, they were anything but. The blood of thousands of sentient beings had been spilled by his hands. At least, in the Origin System, he could take solace in the blood he spilled being of the brainwashed masses of clone bodies and mechanical proxies. Now, now in this more primitive world that hadn't mechanized and perverted their morals with the ashes of a gilded empire, he had spilled the blood of men and women. Volunteers. People with families.

A numbness took hold of his heart. "What made that child so different, kiddo?" whispered a voice. "What difference would it make to spill the blood of one more, with thousands already on your hands? The people you and your kind have taken advantage of. The fools that would waste their lives charging forward for some cause they can't fully comprehend. What makes that boy and the lives of those soldiers so different from the ones you've taken in the Origin System?"

Hayden turned, seeing his reflection in the mirror. The reflection's hollow eyes bore into the Operator's. His mouth moved, "Those calls, those radio frequencies. It's all the same, isn't it? What's stopping you from crushing them under your foot, like how you did before and after you woke up? What's stopping you now? Why should you care?"

* * *

Hayden shut the bathroom door as he left. The noise drew a glance from Umbra, who was in the corner of the room, away from the balcony window and in the shadows of his dimly lit studio apartment, idly polishing his Skiajati. After sharing a look, the man-turned Warframe went back to his work. Hayden rubbed his eye lids before moving to the kitchen counter.

Sitting himself down, the black haired youth spared glimpses at the black, Sumeragi branded case he had set by his bedside. Scooping up a spoonful of rice from the rice cooker and setting up a few side dishes to go along with the steam cooked grain, he served himself dinner. The single fact that Sumeragi got their hands on something like Kuva greatly worried the Tenno. Where there was Kuva, there were Grineer, with a slim chance of Orokin. If there were Grineer and Orokin elements here, then there were guaranteed more things from the volatile Sol System here in this parallel world. Now he would have to perform flat out sabotage and destruction on Sumeragi facilities on top of his previous plans of espionage and robbing Sumeragi of their exotic resources. He would not allow a second Orokin Empire to rise because a global conglomerate got their hands on that oil like substance.

Hayden took the first bite of his home made meal and cringed. "_Far too salty. Must've screwed up the seasoning." _It was as he made for his phone did it ding, showing the notification of an e-mail. "_How curious." _Was it spam? Orders from his delivery company? Ordis? Inputting his rather simple passcode and with a few taps, the e-mail was opened.

Subject: SUMERAGI RAID LOL

From: xXL33T_H4CK3R_T3S30_Xx

BEEP BOOP TESEO-SAN HERE LOL. HAVE JOB HERE: NARUTO RUN AND RAID AREA SUMERAGI LOL #RIPWEEBS #RIPALIENASSCLAPPINGDREAMS デ╦-( ͡ಥʖ̯ಥ;)╯╲_XXXX BTW GJ FAILING STEALTH ROFL. CHECK ATTACHMENT 1 + 2. PROMISE NO VIRUSES IN THERE. BTW WHAT DID YOU DO W/ SLEEPING BEAUTY RAEP HIM?/?/? U CAN TELL ME #TRAPSRGAY LEL. BTT TESEO-SAN W/ EDEN HERE 2 RECRUIT U TO OPERATION HEAVEN'S FALL. YOUR REWARD WILL BE GREAT. PLS CHECK ATTACHMENT 3. #STEALTHISOPTIONAL. ACCEPT REQUEST 4 MOAR DETAILS. #CALLMEMAYBE

An eyebrow twitched as he deciphered the e-mail. The teen was sorely tempted to just file this incoherent message to trash but something caught his eye towards the end. He really had nothing to lose as he highly doubted this stranger was aligned with Sumeragi. If they were then they wouldn't have sent this mail in the first place and just raided his apartment at a later date. For the possibility that this shady e-mail had a virus of some sort he could very easily either buy a new phone or wash it of any sort of malware or virus. Hayden carried nothing of actual importance such as his other worldly origins on this piece of tech anyway.

Tapping at the attachments, the Tenno's eyes passively drifted over the blurry picture of what was Umbra dashing into an alleyway carrying the blonde preteen he encountered earlier and a shot of a head of black hair passing the view of a security camera within the postal station. His jaw went slack as the third picture loaded. This was a breakthrough he hadn't expected so soon. The image was a picture within what was very apparent to be Orokin ruins. At the center of the picture was the blocky form of a Torsian Beam Device.

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**As stated before, I hate writing Teseo but I feel that it is getting easier. he's gonna show up again soon in the next few chapters. deciphering what he said shouldn't be too hard. Anyways, yes i'll eventually revisit the Grande Divisor arc. As a reader I too hate it when a story with a decent premise is plagued by poor formats and cringe worthy mistakes. I seek to rectify that and attract more readers. anyways, though brief this chapter does serve a multitude of critical purposes. we are at the cusp of the Gunvolt Eden drama CD (if you want to listen to it, it's been translated and uploaded onto Youtube by someone named Sidier). As always please report any grammar, spelling errors, story inconsistencies, etc to me. Anyways, have a good day.**


	13. Chapter 13: Heaven's Fall pt1

**Chapter 13. All characters belong to their respective owners. By the time of this upload the Grande Divisor arc should be redone so reread it if you'd like, I added a few scenes. Otherwise, enjoy**

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In a city under siege, a child of the stars is forced to face a youth burning with wrath and a magnetic warrior consumed by greed. In the shadows, an avenger watches…

* * *

A cacophony of footsteps and machinery dominated the Biochem Plant as Sumeragi soldiers rapidly mobilized onto a transport train. Already within the train was a young redhead teen dressed in grey camo cargo pants, black combat boots, and a typical, if dishevelled, Sumeragi officer's coat over a white shirt. This individual was named Viper, overseer of the Sumeragi Biochem Plant and one of Sumeragi's top Adepts.

A red eyebrow twitched in irritation as klaxons blared and soldiers shuffled into the train car under Viper's watch.

Jerking his head to the side, causing his unruly hair and low ponytail to bob, the teen harshly addressed a nearby soldier who was looking intently at a datapad, "Oi! This damn alert started 5 minutes ago, when the hell are we gonna get this train moving?!"

Jumping a bit at the sudden question from his superior, the soldier responded, "S-sorry Viper. We're still loading the mechs onboard the train and…"

The intense glare Viper sported intensified, "We've been on standby since that attack on that mail delivery station some days ago and the target's the fucking Amaterasu Radio Tower. Why the hell is it taking so long to mobilize?!"

The soldier trembled from the intimidating aura the Sumeragi Adept emitted. In combination with an inability to produce an answer that would satisfy the Adept, the soldier could only muster, "Ugh.. -I... we-."

Disappointment was palpable as the Adept turned away and muttered, "And you call yourselves professional soldiers..." Upon hearing those words, the soldier slumped. "I just want this mess over and done with so I can go back to listening to Lumen's songs." Turning a lone red eye back at the soldier, Viper snatched a data pad from the soldier's hands.

Suddenly, the train began moving. After a pause and with a huff, the redhead handed the pad back to the still slumped soldier and sat down. Dark red eyes looked out at the expanse of the city. Those orbs narrowed as he noticed something peculiar. An entire city block had gone completely dark. The overseer's brows furrowed as something in his gut told him that an intense fight was going to happen soon.

* * *

An explosion rocked the street as an entire train was derailed, crashed and caused a number of traffic accidents. Civilians scattered, screaming as they evacuated from the city block. Amidst the flames and the wreckage stood a lone, black armored humanoid. Tossing an empty rocket launcher, Umbra turned towards the fast approaching Sumeragi soldiers. The teen within could only close his eyes as he saw a broken, dead, and bloodied hand peak from underneath a warped steel plate. "DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!" spoke a voice over a megaphone. The Warframe merely drew its sword, charging at the lineup of soldiers as they discharged their weapons.

...

...

"_Kehehe, Teseo-san here~! Calling after you accepted my invitation." The peppy voice of a teenager of a similar age to Hayden blared through his phone's speakers. The Operator merely sighed before responding, "Just get to the point. What are the details of this mission." Teseo exaggerated a groan before finally responding, "Well, ya see here we have this Operation called Heaven's Fall (so cliche sounding, LOL) where we attack the Amaterasu Radio Tower and take out the 'Ame No Uzume', the repeater that keeps the Kamishiro activated! Eden wants to ask you for help on this operation!" _

_The idea of taking down the national boundary shocked the Tenno. Comparisons were drawn between Cetus and Japan. He knew Sumeragi were morally dubious but compromising such a massive part of a nation's defense? "Why should I? I have no ties with Eden. If I were to do this then I'd only expose myself to Sumeragi."_

_..._

_..._

"_...Eh? No ties… ? Please don't play like that to Teseo-san, I know what you and your boyfriend did in the Grande Divisor." Hayden's eyes widened at the Eden Adept's words and sudden change in tone, "I can easily just give information about you to Sumeragi. Payback for what happened to Antonio-san." The Tenno's eyes narrowed as his eyes intensified on the Eden symbol on his phone. This originally mutual negotiation had turned into a threat of compliance. Teseo continued, his tone taking a sharp turn as he returned to his usual chipper tone,"We can do that or… I can reward you for your services LOL!" _

_There was a pause before the black haired teen spoke, "Fine, what are your terms and rewards for this?" The gremlin on the other end of the line hummed while some clicking on a keyboard was heard in the background, "Here! Here! This Teseo-san will pay you with these important locations on Sumeragi's list! LOL! I'll even give it to you in advance! If you successfully complete this job, I'll pay you with the location on where the picture of this thingie majigger was taken from! …Well?" _

_Hayden audibly swallowed and took a deep breath. "Fine… I'll do the job. What are you asking me to do, Teseo?" A small laugh was heard over the line before the Eden hacker began to debrief Hayden on Operation Heaven's Fall._

_..._

_..._

It had been two weeks since Hayden had that conversation and accepted the shady mission from the Adept Supremacy Group, Eden. As preparation, the Operator had used his position as a courier to scout out the areas of the city, seeing several low key pathways that lead to various equally low key military bases. These were roads that allowed for fast deployment if a national emergency were to happen. The Kamishiro being under threat of collapse would obviously be an emergency thus Umbra was needed to stall these forces. Security did get tightened in the aftermath of that attack at the shipment center Hayden worked at.

His job was to halt any sort of meaningful reinforcements from arriving and overwhelming the Eden operative directly assaulting the tower. The Tenno didn't like being used like this but he needed that Orokin technology out of Sumeragi's hands. Considering the attitudes that Sumeragi held under their public persona and projects if one were to dig deep enough, they could very easily spawn a world spanning government like the Orokin Empire if left with such technology. Along with that reason, Hayden needed to protect his cover.

Sweeping his blade, blood flew from the now vacant necks of soldiers. The familiar stomping of mechs reached Umbra's audio receptors as he turned towards the machines that stepped forth, unhindered from the still roaring fires. Taking in the sight, the Tenno allowed a small bit of relief flow through him as he caught glimpses of organic soldiers pulling away from the battlefield. After he was done dealing with these robots he'll continue and destroy the infrastructure leading towards the Amaterasu Radio Tower. This group of soldiers were effectively crippled now.

Bits and pieces of cannons and chainsaws flew every which way in Umbra's wake. A building feeling of disgust and lament came over the Operative as he swept through a number of robots. Being forced to assist these terrorists, especially when they announced this operation to Sumeragi beforehand thus resulting in the increased number of soldiers he had to fight and possibly kill, enraged him. He just wanted to go home yet factors were forcing him to be thrown into doing dirty work for these people. It didn't help that they were akin to the damnable Syndicates from the Sol System. At the very least he was being rewarded... Resigning himself, the Tenno continued his work.

Almost dancing out of the way of a stream of missiles, the Warframe charged a lone Mantis tank that survived the supply train derailing. Unlike the gliding, arctic variants he fought when he first woke up in this world, the lumbering, armored artillery platform was all too slow and vulnerable to the Tenno's assault.

Upon the mech's hacked up metal carcass detonating from severe damage to the face and core, the Warframe dove into a dark alleway, making his way to the next location to sabotage.

* * *

The sound of gunfire was clear through the audio speakers as Teseo feverishly typed on his computer. "Kehehehe, looks like Gibril-chan is really going at it down there, LOL." Pausing in his work, the hacker looked over to a tablet he had set to the side. "Eh too bad Hayden-san decided to black out the entire city block though…" The green haired teen pouted. His eyes lingered on the 'NO SIGNAL' notification on the blank screen before resuming his work, that being hacking into the Radio Tower's mainframe.

* * *

A petite, punk girl sprang forward amidst a hailstorm of gunfire. Growling under her breath, she focused on the pieces of polished metal zooming around and towards her. The girl was Gibril, her Septima named 'Metallica'. With its dominance over metal, the bullets were merely redirected as she fired with reckless abandon her AK-47 at the obstructing soldiers. A number of them brought to bear their laser rifles but those too didn't amount to much as they suddenly found the triggers of their guns unresponsive.

"OUTTA MY WAY!" with that yell, a squad of Sumeragi soldiers were sent flying back as a rain of bullets tore straight through them. Hearing the chaos outside, a certain Colonel stepped out from the Radio Tower, his gaze trained on the punk girl standing a ways before him, dead or wounded Sumeragi soldiers scattered around her. "Yo… are ya the Sumeragi Adept?" Gibril replaced a magazine and cocked her gun, "Let's play a bit…" Her orange eyes looked behind Jota, "The Boundary Repeater, was it? I've come to blow it up!"

There was shock and disappointment on Nova's most trusted officer as looked down at the small girl before him, "I was wondering who would come and yet it's a small child!"

Suddenly, the punk girl's facial expression flared in anger, "YOU…! What'd ya say?! That I'm SMALL!?"

Jota's gaze only turned to one of complete disappointment, "So young and with so much anger… To think they would order small children to carry out terrorist attacks…" His expression darkened as he muttered to himself, "'Eden', What an inhuman gang!"

The mention of her height only ticked off the armed girl even more, "You…! You said it before and you just said it again!"

Ignoring her indignation, Jota spoke over her, "Be warned, this is a battlefield! Child… leave this place before you get hurt!"

At the mention of her size once more, the girl trembled in anger, "I can't stand ya anymore… I'LL TURN YA INTO A HONEYCOMB!" she discharged her gun, all shots aimed squarely at Jota's body. With a short exclamation of surprise, Jota dodged the deadly projectiles with ease. "Ah hell! Stop dodging!"

Between each burst of gunfire, Jota spoke, "Hoh, such speed from that gun of yours… Not bad, yet it still won't suffice in matching my light-speed!" As he spoke his form seemingly phased in and out of existence as he was aglow with green light. A black blur came from somewhere in the tower, "Try and dodge THIS." Green light burst forth from the blur, a laser carving up the ground that Gibril was previously standing on.

Gibril expressed shock as she barely avoided the attack, "A laser!"

The colonel allowed himself a smile, "Your current speed won't be enough to react to my attacks!"

More drones appeared, their light cornering Gibril. "Shit! A jet attack…!" An explosion shook the area as Gibril was thrown backwards out of the Amaterasu Radio Tower's courtyard.

Walking with measured steps, Jota approached the girl's downed form, behind her limp body some distance away was the sea. "I have no intention of killing you! If you leave now, I'll let you off the hook."

Something stirred in the waters behind Gibril as she picked herself up. "You sonofava… DON'T UNDERESTIMATE ME!" As she pounded her bare fist on the concrete beneath her, she along with the debris around her began to float.

Jota's green eyes widened as he took in the sight in front of him, "Impossible! She's hovering?" Upon looking closely, Jota realized that wasn't the case, "No… she's using rubble as footing?" Realization dawned on the Sumeragi officer, "You're an Adept!"

Gibril merely scoffed at the revelation, "You're SLOW to catch on, ya moron!"

Ignoring her jab, Jota continued his analysis, "That ability, does it control rubble...?" Noting the similarity of composition between each piece of debris, Jota figured out her Septima's ability, "The minerals in the rubble don't react… Which means it can only control metals!"

Like before, Gibril scoffed, "Heh! Looks like ya can use your head. You're right! My Septima is the ability to freely control metals!" As she exclaimed, streams of gravel began to shoot from the ground around her.

Jota tensed, "Gravel from the rubble!"

The petite girl enunciated the start of her attack,"Right, EAT THIS!" The streams spun into a sharpened point, flying towards the Light Septima user. As he dodged, the water behind Gibril bubbled before rusted wreckage buried by dark waters arose and took to the skies, "This sea is full of airplanes and ships that crashed into the boundary and sunk so I've got TONS of iron scrap to use as weapons! This is the perfect place for me to fight!" A drone aimed and fired, the beam blasting apart a piece of wreckage that rose immediately to guard her seemingly unprotected side. Gibril "tsked" at the reminder of Jota's formidable abilities. "You smashed the rubble with a laser!"

With a small pause in the battle Jota spoke up, "I see… You're quite the powerhouse." He stood up from his crouched position, making eye contact with the Eden Adept, "Let us apologize for underestimating each other! Now, I as a soldier of Japan's national defense and as an Adept..." Jota drew his sword, "challenge you to a duel!"

Gibril chuckled from her higher position, "How interestin... ! Let's do this!"

The black drones assembled around Jota in Fingertip formation as he spoke aloud once more, "Now I'll use my full strength, small child!"

The last comment instantly soured the punk girl, "You piece of- Now you're saying that on purpose! I can't stand it anymore...! I'll turn you into mince meat!"

The metal debris shot forward. Jota met the charge head on, "Let's begin!"

* * *

The sound of flowing water highlighted the ambient blues of the ocean. Merak lounged on a chair in his office as he idly watched fish swim by his window. Muffled, the sounds of gunfire and yelling were heard from a nearby speaker. A lackadaisical blue eye spied the monitor as it showed, from a distance, Jota and that female Eden operative fighting. The preteen let out a deep sigh, "I shouldn't have told Nova about the crime announcement... " There was a pause in the fighting on the monitor, "Now Jota's fighting on the frontlines… aaah, I can see it coming now, Nova's gonna have me do something crazy! I reeaaally don't wanna do that…"

A cellphone chime cut through Merak's pity party, "And here it comes…" Tapping a button, Nova's cool voice was heard over the line, "Merak-kun? Do you copy?"

Shifting in his seat, the Slothful Conjurer responded, "Yeah, yeah. I know the deal, I gotta check if a hacker is trying to intrude, right?"

"I'm glad that you've caught on so fast. My guess is, they'll use the chaos in the city to destroy security over the 'Amaterasu'" Nova's voice trailed before the head of national defense cut the line.

The brown haired boy let out a deep breath once again before rapidly performing a network checkup, "...Aaand it's already happening... man…" After a rapid series of typing, Merak came to a window that he thoroughly looked through, "I knew it, the access permits have been limited. That means I gotta go myself to the 'Amaterasu' host computer and physically operate it." The slothful preteen groaned, not looking forward to such physical activity. "What a bother."

Slowly mentally psyching himself up, digital chimes resonated throughout the room. The blue eyed boy was sent into high alert as in a flash of green digital motes, a green haired Korean kid of similar age to Merak materialized. "Ta-da! LOL!" Merak could only make a questioning noise as he was speechless at the spectacle. "LOL! Gotta say: Teseo - san's arrived! LOL!"

The brown haired kid let out another questioning noise at Teseo's audacious personality before finally asking, "W-what the heck is this? Is this real?" His eyes went up and down the kid's form, seeing something off about this 'Teseo'. "No… something's different, it's as if a game character had materialized…!"

Teseo's hyped demeanor only heightened, "Oho! As expected of Sumeragi's top hacker! You're more or less on the right track!"

Mostly ignoring Teseo's response, Merak continued, "Which means that you're the 'Eden' hacker"

Said Eden hacker enthusiastically affirmed, "Correct! Teseo- san's Septima is an ability that turns matter into cybernetic data and, inversely, can make data- made objects manifest in the real world! LOL!" the gremlin had a small laugh before continuing, "WHOA! LOL! Teseo-san's super KIND 'cause he told the enemy 'bout this! LOL!"

Not enthused at all, Merak murmured, "Yet another crappy ability…" tiredly, he took another look at 'Teseo' before speaking aloud, "So I take it that this clumsy 3D model is data become matter right?"

Ignoring Merak's inquiry, Teseo continued, "Rage while you can though! LOL!"

A message notification lit up in Merak's phone. Taking it out, the preteen read the message in his inbox out loud, "Quick News: Teseo- san's busted a security layer." Pocketing his phone, Merak was impressed, "Wow… In such short time? You're more capable than you seem."

Reading the thinly veiled insult, the Korean responded, "Hey there! Hurry, else Teseo- san will blow through all of your security, ya know! LOL!"

Readjusting his headphones, Merak agreed, "True, guess I gotta hurry." With a single gesture, a portal opened in front of the Sumeragi hacker. The hacker quickly and wordlessly stepping through the conjured portal.

As the portal blinked out of existence, the proxy floated, dumbfounded, "He… vanished?"

Sticking the landing, Merak reappeared in a different portion of the underwater base he was in charge of. "Well, I managed to escape." Now thoroughly energized from the whimsical encounter, Merak mentally charted his course, "Now then, let's go fix the 'Amaterasu' computer and-" The familiar sound of something digitizing reached Merak's ears. Hanging his head down limply, Merak let out an exasperated sigh, "And here he comes again…"

The familiar digital proxy floated a few feet away from Merak, "Oi! What was THAT! LOL!"

Dismissive, the conjurer replied, "You're not the only one who has a Septima."

Instantly, the human gremlin figured out his rival hacker's ability, "A wormhole! So that's your ability! LOL!"

A lazy smile spread across Merak's lips, "Correct!" The usually hunched brown haired preteen visibly straightened his back, "Well, I'm in a rush so…"

Teseo cut him off, "I can't let you leave this place! LOL!"

The sounds of doors closing all around made Merak take a quick look around as the lights around him emitted a red color, "The bulkhead…!"

Taking on the demeanor of some an overenthusiastic game show host, Teseo announced, "STT; Super Teseo-san Time's 'bout to begin! LOL!"

Thrown for a loop, Merak could only repeat what Teseo announced, "STT…?" "_sounds like a disease..." _he sighed, "It's so hard to bear with people like this…"

Peppy as ever, the Korean continued, "Let me explain! Teseo- san can materialize data, just like this! LOL!" A feminine framework materialized before just as quickly details such as shape, build, clothes, hair, and skin came to form.

With the appearance of a girl in her early teens sporting baby blue hair styled in a low twintail style, a navy blue and white japanese-school-girl-like outfit, and an angelic combo of stylized, pink mini angel wings and a halo, Merak recognized the digital avatar. "This character…! It's from a shooting game famous in some circles!"

Curling his mouth into a toothy smile, Teseo gloated, "Teseo-san's specialty, the apprentice angel: Ekoro-chan! LOL!" Merak made an awed sound at the display of ability by the Eden hacker.

"LOL! Have a good look at this precise modelling: go ahead! LOL!" Taking a breath before continuing to verbally stroke himself, Teseo continued, "Whoa! Teseo-san's a genius modeler! LOL!"

Merak tilted his head away from the self absorbed rival hacker, "Ugh, I wanna leave…"

Teseo's mood visibly dampered at Merak's reaction, "To think you don't understand this beauty… You're so pitiful man! LOL!"

The brown haired boy bit back, "To be honest, I couldn't care less."

Acting as if he didn't hear Merak's frank statement, he goaded Ekoro to attack, "Go! LOL! Ekoro-chan! Attack that guy! LOL!" the avatar took to the skies, drawing a pair of heart decorated guns before picking up speed as she dive bombed the headphone wearing Adept.

With perfect timing, Merak side stepped and materialized a portal where he previously stood which the blue haired girl flew straight into. Teseo let out a shocked noise as the portal promptly closed. "Ekoro- chan fell into a hole…! Into a HOLE~!"

While the gremlin mourned over his lost digital waif, Merak made a quick exit. Steadying his breath after the jump, the boy muttered to himself quietly, "This is bad… If I keep fighting this guy head-on I'm gonna wear out." Focusing on the image of the Amaterasu Radio Tower, a portal formed, "I need to hurry to the 'Amaterasu' and finish this."

* * *

From the safety of his opulent office, Nova watched as visible explosions and smoke trailed from city blocks going dark followed by radio reports of his soldiers dying or being grievously injured. Centered around this chaos was the Amaterasu Radio Tower which was noticeably under attack from the tell tale signs of Jota fighting using his Light Septima. Impressed, the teen spoke to himself, "I had thought that they were just some extremist gang and yet… they're pretty good." A notification blipped onto his phone. "_From Merak." _A lone eyebrow raised as he read the hacker's message on what was holding him.

The office phone ringing broke the young head of National Defense's focus "A transmission?" When the ID turned up an unknown, Nova wondered, "Where is it coming from?"

Tapping the ACCEPT CALL button, a smooth, collected, business- like voice came from the other end, "Hello. It's a pleasure meeting you, Nova."

The purple haired government official asked, "Who are you?" A certain tone akin to smugness came from the voice on the other end as he introduced himself, "I am Tenjian. I, along with two others currently working in this operation of ours are Eden's elite: The 'Grimwald Seven'; AKA G7! I am their leader."

Nova digested this information, "G7? I see… so you're Eden's leader"

"...Well? What do you think of us Eden Adepts?" At the question, Nova didn't hesitate to respond, "I'm surprised to be honest, I didn't expect you to be this capable."

Tenjian hummed, "You, Mighty One. You're also an Adept; you should understand it. We are only so powerful because we are an Adept-only organization. We have Septimas, we are chosen humans." Taking a seat and leaning backwards, Nova talked back from his reclined position, "Regrettably, I am not interested in 'elitism'."

The leader of G7 voiced his disappointment, "That's a pity…" Deep in thought, Nova vocalized his thoughts, "That aside, you didn't merely send a crime announcement, you also contacted me directly. Are you intending to show confidence?" Unseen, Tenjian smiled from his end of the transmission, "Ah, yes. If we get serious, we can make an armed intervention at any time. I wanted to tell you that. We of 'Eden' want to demonstrate that Adepts are elite."

"Hmmm, is that right? Save me the public stance. How about you tell me your true goal?" There was a pause at the blunt question. Tsukuyomi merely smiled as he had managed to hit the nail right on the head.

Tenjian then finally responded,"I told you… we want to demonstrate that Adepts are elite. Demonstrate to the non- Adepts, of course."

Nova shook his head in disappointment, "Good grief. You bothered to contact me and yet you're going to end it without showing your true nature?" A shocked and disgruntled "hrk" came from Tenjian. Nova continued as his smile grew wider, "The reason you're being so flashy today, even going so far as to enlist a third party to assist you… Maybe that's to camouflage something."

Playing dumb, the leader of Eden inquired, "'Something?'" Nova answered with, "Don't know."

Resuming his composed self, Tenjian resumed the line of question he was pursuing, "So you mean to say that we of Eden aren't the only conspirators here."

The purple haired boy was slightly intrigued, "What do you mean?"

The enigmatic leader of Eden took on a more dominant position in the conversation, "If this affair becomes widely known to the public, their nights will be spent admitting that the threat of an external enemy exists. When that happens, the involved parties will gain the most important positions imaginable." The previous smile on Nova's face slipped away as his eyes came to a close, "Of course."

"Well then… who will benefit the most from this situation?" At Tenjian's question there was a long pause as both began to formulate ways to entrap the other in a position of dominance in their verbal duel.

With an amused huff, Nova was the first to break the standoff, "Good grief… We can't spend the entire night trying to figure each other out."

A light hearted chuckle came from the other end, "I guess that's the case."

With the proverbial ice broken, Nova spoke again, "Anyhow, I don't intend to allow you break to break through the Boundary."

Tenjian responded promptly, "Same over here. We don't intend to lose!" With that final declaration, the call ended.

Turning his chair towards the city skyline, Nova immersed himself in his thoughts. "_What were they hiding? That man definitely hid something, especially when he mentioned the usage of 2 of his elite and failing to mention or even acknowledge the third member of their raid." _A lone hand held up his phone, in the small chatroom reading that Merak was busy dealing with an Eden hacker with an 'irritating' ability. "_That's one." _His purple eyes drifted to the Amaterasu Radio Tower which was still playing host to some sort of lightshow. "_And that's two." _When he looked at the continuing number of explosions and smoke elsewhere in the city, he was left to wonder. He let out a resigned breath, "Eden's Tenjian, huh?"

* * *

Viper's muscles had tensed up completely as he looked on as the train chugged along. He could blatantly see smoke rising from different city blocks around the Amaterasu Radio Tower. It was apparent that whatever was slaughtering Sumeragi soldiers was only specifically targeting the military transport routes. He was just about ready to go outside to confront the threat but then the train shook. Red eyes focused hard as the shaking intensified. "_Whatever it is, here it comes…!" _the entire transport lurched, sending the punk flying. The redhead pitched forward as the entire train was knocked off its train track. Viper blacked out the moment his head made contact with the reinforced steel wall.

* * *

There was a certain satisfaction within Umbra as he dismissed his beam rifle and counted the remaining number of rockets he had pilfered earlier from a Sumeragi contingent. Readjusting the straps on the rocket holster that clung onto Umbra's form, the Tenno drew his sword as dark shapes leapt from the downed train. Unlike most, this train was much more armored and held markings that signalled it hailed from a subdivision of the military. Hayden squinted his eyes as a number of Sumeragi soldiers sporting sleeker armor predominantly in white and black with red highlights revealed themselves. As a collective they drew razor sharp katanas instead of the common guns that their green and blue brethren used. "_How cute." _

Ducking to the side, Umbra dodged an attempted strike from above. Kicking out and sending the Sumeragi Assassin flying, the other Assassins made their moves. Umbra met their charge head on.

* * *

Groggily, Viper regained consciousness to the interior of a train car flipped on its side. Checking himself to be uninjured, the Biochem overseer ignored the pain in his head as he stood up. With a grab on the emergency lock on a nearby window, Viper stepped out to the sounds of chaos. Dead soldiers and destroyed robots littered the once populated streets. Cars were beeping loud as their alarms were tripped after getting in the crossfire of battle. The pain and the stress of the situation got to the usually aloof teen.

* * *

His irritation swelled as he spied a lone ebony figure standing arrogantly over the downed Sumeragi Assassins entrusted to Viper. He was well past the point of talking as the dying flames of nearby mechs flowed and coalesced into balls of fire in Viper's hands.

The Warframe stood over the dead Assassins, their blood spilt all over his body. They were formidable, but nowhere near the level of the Dax soldiers he trained and fought with, and eventually against during the height of the Old War. With this unit thoroughly out of commission, Hayden made preparations for hitting up the next route as he consulted his HUD's map. A war cry immediately had the Operator closing the map in favor of turning towards the direction of the cry. Umbra raised his Skiajati as a practically blazing ball of fire screamed at him as it descended on him not unlike a meteor.

* * *

**As always, please leave feedback in the reviews. I have made edits not just to the Grande Divisor arc, but also to all chapters starting from 5 up to this chapter as of 9/20 (Finishing all of my edits of those previous chapters on the day of the Area 51 raid was not my intention). A few small scenes and changes sprinkled here and there exist to flesh out the Operator as a character. Read them at your leisure. **

**Regarding Teseo, if you read his profile on the wiki, he's kind of retarded in how he has little capability of reading the mood with his way of speaking and thought process. He always aims to cheer up others but the way he attempts at it just makes things worse. **

**This chapter is essentially a retelling of the drama CD. The reason why the entire thing will be retold is due to how certain elements such as the introduction of each of G7's Septimas will factor in later. Also to introduce early the second half of this story's villains along with showing where Tenno power stands in the world of Gunvolt against unenhanced Septima users. **

**Yes, Hayden hates Syndicates in general, Steel Meridian included. More on that will be explained in later chapters.**

**As always, have a nice day.**


	14. Chapter 14: Heaven's Fall pt2

**It's been too looong~ **

**All characters belong to their respective owners. (Inti- Creates, Digital Extremes, etc)**

* * *

The orange eyes of a blonde haired man with bronzed skin looked down at the cityscape. His name was Carrera. He and his assigned Adept hunter group had previously been in the process of mobilizing but comms had lit up before they got onto their transports. An unknown force was systematically stopping and destroying entire contingents of armed Sumeragi personnel. His heart went out to those not as fortunate as he to receive such great power in his Septima. Nova himself had personally assigned him on the task of collecting data on this unknown interloper along with authorizing him to field test a new piece of Sumeragi technology. After consulting with the team's long range communications soldier, the group had pinpointed where the seemingly lone interloper was located. Honing his gaze towards a specific smoke trail from a distant city block, Carerra drew forth a weapon.

In his grasp was a geometric black blade that had glowing orange gemstones inlaid in its blade and impractical sword guard. This was a container called a 'Glaive'. As a recent and as of yet unimplemented general procedure all Adepts were to contain their Septimas within the Glaive and await for authorization by Sumeragi officials. Carerra was the second to undergo the procedure to have his Septima sealed. Each Glaive manufactured was christened a name according to the Japanese historic weapons chosen as the basis for the container. For Carerra, his was made from the sword called 'Rockslicer'.

Raising 'Rockslicer' to the sky, a pillar of black energy highlighted by orange lights enshrouded his muscular form. Power flooded him as armor wrapped tight around his body. Replacing his modified Sumeragi attire, Carrera's form now donned a form fitting grey undersuit that emphasized his bulging musculature. On top of this undersuit were a pair of massive black and white shoulder armor which wrapped around his shoulders and biceps. His forearms and fists were covered in a black spiked gauntlet. Black plate armor covered his chest and hung down over his crotch. Similarly colored boots manifested. Spread through this ensemble were orange crystals that lay atop and within the armor. Topping off his appearance, a Men- Yoroi covered his lower face.

His heart pounded within. The ecstasy from the rush and avaricious need to test this power against a worthy opponent almost made him forget to command his group. Turning, his voice boomed through the night as he faced his team, "Mine team, thine objective is to record and collect data for our Mighty Minister of Defense. I alone shall face whatever opponent we shall encounter. Have I made myself clear?" A chorus of affirmatives reached Carerra's ears. Smiling behind his mask, the Weaponized Adept leapt off, his men following suit.

* * *

Umbra's sleek form rode the explosion conjured by the irate Sumeragi Adept. Rolling into a crouch, the Tenno sized up his opponent. "_Another kid…?" _Hayden's eyes narrowed as the redhead spoke his first actual words towards the Warframe, "So you're the piece of trash killin Sumeragi goons." straightening his posture, he continued, "honestly... parading your power… killing others… and not even having the guts to show your face… TYPES LIKE YOU PISS ME OFF!" the space behind the youth lit up in an explosion of flames, the force propelling him right over Umbra. A flame coated leg stretched into a kick which Umbra dodged and leapt back as asphalt cracked and flew from the force of the attack.

The Warframe tilted its ebony head towards his aggressor, the Adept seeming to be more ticked off than just a moment ago. "Not even speaking a single word, huh? Tch, name's Viper. I'll give ya that one courtesy before I knocked the daylights out of you!" In contrast to his earlier strike, he didn't propel himself skyward, but instead as a tool to come at Umbra head on. "_He really likes his kicks…" _Blocking another kick, the Adept kicked off Skiajati's sheath. After a smooth landing, he charged again, this time using a flurry of punches that emitted powerful explosions that were effortlessly dodged by the Warframe.

Viper's explosive strikes were countered by the Tenno; the sheer quantity though, left little room for an actual counterattack. As the exchange went on, both combatants observed one another. "_What kind of Septima does this Adept have?" _As sparks built into a fiery explosion, the alien warrior came to a conclusion, "_Explosions. That's his Septima. How troublesome." _If the Warframe didn't properly redirect or dodge the Adept's strikes then he'd be blown away from the kick of the blasts.

After punctuating a strike with an "Ora!", Viper saw that his current stratagem wasn't making any progress. Feeling the tell tale signs of soreness creeping in, the Biochem Overseer backed away, soaking up lingering flames from the train wreckage behind him. As the flames behind him died, flames danced at Viper's fingertips. With vigor, the Explosion Adept flung spheres of fiery explosives at Umbra's ebony form. Displaying infuriating ease, the Warframe danced between each blast. "_I need to catch this bastard in the air!" _Boxing in the slippery swordsman, he forced the swordsman to jump up high. A toothy grin spread across the teen's face as he achieved lift off with a series of explosions. Like a swooping hawk, Viper was upon the airborne Tenno.

As he was making for what he thought would be the first strike against his foe, the Tenno seemed to defy the laws of physics, slipping under the strike at an impossible angle before lashing out with a savage kick. The strike tore the air from Viper's lungs along while cracking several ribs. Landing harshly on his back, Viper was in a daze

"_For your sake, you stay down," _thought Hayden. Turning, the Tenno began to plan out his next set of routes. The Warframe made its way to a dark alley but a wall of flame materialized and barred the path. Turning back to the previously downed for of Viper, the teen was in a sprinter's ready stance and roared, "DON'T THINK I'M DONE YET!" The Adept was obviously infuriated at the outcome of the fight, his pride broken by the unknown trivializing the Adept who, at one time, single handedly united all of Japan's delinquent gangs under a single banner. _**"Rays of searing heat, The sun returns all to ash. Beneath its wrathful gaze! Refulgence!"**_

Flashes of a similar chant uttered by a certain Adept played in the Tenno's mind. Umbra's muscles tensed and the Operator's irritation born from the instant recollection of the _Grande Divisor _spiked. The redhead's flame wreathed form barrelled straight at the Tenno, missing from an easy sidestep by the latter. Looking over where Viper had once stood, a second wall of fire took form. From the first fire wall, Viper took to the skies, the flames covering him hotter than before. He dove into the recently spawned wall. Hayden gained a microcosm of what was about to happen "_Building up so much heat and explosive power while I'm boxed in between these two fire walls, the guy's probably going to perform a meteoric impact of some kind." _With hypothesis in mind, Umbra's knees bent.

Ignoring the pain in his chest, Viper shot out from the second wall of flames. He was going to discharge the built up flames and hopefully this human shaped monster will drown in the ensuing sea of fire. What the Adept didn't expect was for the enemy combatant to leap up, meeting him midair and with sheathed Skiajati in hand. Those hands ignored the searing flames and instead smashed the sheath -hard- into the kid's skull. Pain exploded in the back of the Overseer's head before consciousness finally left him.

The punk turned Sumeragi officer was on the ground, unmoving. Umbra's gaze hovered over the kid's downed form before continuing on his way through the alleyway. As the path opened to an empty street a stray car flew, nearly blindsiding the Tenno. As he rolled over into a crouched, ready state with an increasing level of irritation, he made eye contact with a bulging, armored, blonde haired foe. His form fitting armor ensemble made this new combatant resemble a futuristic Samurai. Banging his fists together, the combatant praised Umbra, "Thine form is quite inspiring. Such power in thy limbs to take down Viper. I, Carerra, shall savor this fight mine mute foe!"

* * *

A hooded figure hovered in the intense shadows cast from the still burning flames a couple feet away. Copen's crimson eyes stared down with the same predatory glint of a vulture as he took in Viper's downed form. The safety on his pistol, '_Border', _was flipped off as he took aim and fingered the trigger. A flash of pragmatism punctuated by a distant sound of an explosion caused the teen to holster his gun. From a pocket, a small syringe was produced as Copen approached the still unconscious Sumeragi Overseer and extracted blood. Observing the crimson liquid in the firelight, Copen pocketed the filled syringe.

"You live to die another day, Adept." With his piece done, the vengeful youth made his way towards the fighting a block away.

* * *

A portal opened as Merak stepped out into the main server room of 'Amaterasu'. The Wormhole Adept had been dueling the annoying Eden hacker, Teseo, for the past minute. In a very uncharacteristic fashion, Merak ran up to a terminal. "_Did I make it in time?" _

The Sumeragi Adept gasped as suddenly the displays both on computers and on the walls glowed green and a familiar projection manifested on the screens. Teseo sat within a parody newscaster room, "Quick News! National Defense Cornerstone, 'Amaterasu', is down! Is this nation alright?! LOL".

Ignoring the taunt, Merak opted to focus on typing away at the terminal. "What a pity, U were a step too late! Teseo-san's reached the final security level! LOL!". As if to punctuate his statement, the windows opened on Merak's terminal suddenly all closed down. "Gotcha! LOL! Checkmate!" Teseo celebrated, "And the system goes down! LOL".

In spite of the current situation, the blue eyed adversary was oddly calm as he took on his usual slouched posture and spoke, "Ah, is that so? Glad to hear that!"

Thrown for a bit of a loop, Teseo responded, "Huh? What's wrong with u? LOL"

Rolling his neck and slightly stretching his back, Merak casually replied, "Nothing's wrong… I only thought I needn't play cat 'n mouse anymore."

The Eden hacker dragged his questioned breath as he tried to piece together what Merak was implicating. Ignoring the green haired youth's amusing confusion, the Wormhole Septima user continued, "I came here to give you a warning, see."

"...What r u sayin' man? lol!" The Eden Adept reluctantly asked.

Not bothering to hide his amusement, the brunette finally revealed what he had done, "I backtraced your location and I've sent you an email that contains a virus!"

Teseo emitted a questioning sound, "Teseo- san won't fall for that taunt, man! Nice bluff! LOL!" In contrast to his earlier words, the Eden hacker's enthusiasm rang hollow.

Noticing that his terrorist rival was unreceptive to his words, the brown haired hacker continued the round of conversation, "You think so? Well, check it out then!"

"Tch!" With that noise, Teseo's on screen projection followed its progenitor's actions as it swiped and began audibly typing, "Well… guess I'll do that…" After a few more seconds of typing and an audible double take with said typing, Merak's lazy smile reached his eyes as he caught Teseo's green orbs widen in shock. "When did you…?!"

Allowing a laugh to escape at the now flipped situation, Merak taunted, "What are you implying? I had ple-eenty of time to do so: more than enough, see?" Flipping out his phone, Merak showed the screen displaying the sent email to the hacked displays. Savoring the gobsmacked look on his opponent, Merak brushed his hair back a little with his free hand, "I'm a bit of a genius you know?"

Visibly, Teseo's hands balled into fists as he growled, his infuriated mind unable to construct words at this turnabout. With zeal, Merak turned the metaphorical heel further, "Hey now! If you don't hurry, you'll get into some dee-eper trouble! My manufactured viruses are quite powerful you know! The infection won't just stop at your PC… it might just spread throughout Eden's network too!"

Left in a rage and fear fueled daze brought on by both Merak's cunning counter and what trouble he'd get with his superiors, Teseo grounded his teeth and tugged at his hair. In contrast to Teseo's tumultuous emotional state, Merak allowed himself to relax and bask in the catharsis of putting the troll in his place. Closing his eyes, Merak spoke to the silent Teseo, "So… What will you do?"

A clang and something dropping to the metal floor of the server room snapped Merak from his reverie.

Blue eyes focused completely on the metal box that was now on the floor a few feet away, "Wha- what's that box? Where'd it come from?" Suddenly the screens flickered as the lights all audibly shut down. "Crap! The server!" Turning back to the single still powered on screen, Merak addressed the equally confused Teseo, "Did you do this too?!"

It took a millisecond more to process what had happened before Teseo stuttered a response, "S-sure! LOL! Just like how you set up a virus… Teseo-san set up a trap of his own as well! LOL!"

Merak was not convinced at all of the Eden hacker's words. His thumb went under his lower lip as he wordlessly and cautiously approached the metal object, "_that's not it… that trap is material; it's different from his tricks so far…" _

Still noticeably shaken by his 'hacker duel' with the Sumeragi Adept, Teseo made his leave, "W-well, Teseo-san fulfilled his mission so I'm going home! LOL!" The screen closed down as the 'Hack the World' Septima user retracted his influence from the terminal.

With the toothy Eden terrorist gone, Merak vocalized his inner thoughts as he pondered the situation at hand in the darkness, "... Guess I should consider that there's another intruder apart from Eden…". Now crouching down next to the box, Merak softly spoke to himself, "Let's investigate this trap… No." Standing up, he looked at the dead servers before him, "Right now I should be prioritizing restoring the system. If I don't do my job, I'll get scolded so…"

Trailing off, the Sumeragi hacker got to work on a nearby terminal.

* * *

A familiar dome shaped helmet looked down from the rooftops to the battle below. "_Why the hell is the captain taking so long?!" _

The irate soldier was looking down at the two combatants within the street: the unknown, rocket launcher toting swordsman that massacred a large number of Sumeragi personnel, and the soldier's captain, the elite Adept Hunter possessing a magnetic Septima, Carrera.

There had been a distinct change, the soldier had noticed, in the captain after he underwent 'weaponization'. Before, despite his 'blood knight' tendencies, he was always a team player. There was always a method that involved his team in some form or fashion when entrapping Adepts, especially when more than one is involved but now, now he had charged in alone. Granted, the enemy they were facing was much, much more powerful than previous targets and the squad would only get in the way in a straight battle. But, Carrera made no effort to ask for support…

Turning to the drone next to him, he commanded, "Keep watch over the battlefield and be sure to stream as much data as you can to Sumeragi HQ." Flipping on his radio he called his other, spread out compatriots, "Men, since Carerra is busy, I as second in command order you to begin Entrapment formation Delta."

There was a chorus of affirmatives, but one voice didn't reach the second in command's ears, "Operative Carver? Operative Carver, do you copy?" Suddenly, a pained gasp was heard over the line. Immediately, the Sumeragi soldier pulled out a tablet. Already, three of the 15 manned group had flatlined, with others rapidly joining the dead's number. "_What?!" _

Suddenly, the drone next to him sparked and fell onto the floor of the rooftop in a clatter. He turned to the drone, "_Knives?" _

Tracing the trajectory in a millisecond, the soldier snapped to the direction of the attack only to be met with a red blur and suddenly being unable to breath. Letting out a gurgle, the soldier clutched his sliced neck as he choked on his blood. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was a red haired woman.

* * *

Chunks of metal propelled themselves at high speeds as Umbra danced through the onslaught. This dance of bullets and projectiles had been going on for a full two minutes; still ongoing as the street was torn asunder in the duo's wake. Spiked gauntlets propelled themselves, trying to box in the physics defying swordsman to no avail. The weaponized Adept merely laughed at this development, drunk off of the thrill of battle. Throwing his full weight as he jumped into the skies, the Adept smashed into the street below. Asphalt and concrete crattered and scattered across the battlefield. Stray bits pelted against Umbra's shield as the onslaught continued.

"_Somehow, I need to clear the distance and deal a single, fatal blow." _The Tenno had discovered early on that his projectile weaponry were rendered useless as they were redirected or flung right back into the Tenno's face. This Adept was so unlike Viper. Though relentless, the Explosion Septima user still took brief moments to siphon energy from his environment to use as fuel for his attacks. The one Hayden was facing right now, he was more like Pamela with the constant spamming of his Septima power with no pause. "_could it be the armored state that he was in?" _Like Pamela, a black armor had latched itself onto Carerra's form. Where it was only attached to her spine, letting the rest 'hang out' as it were, this Adept had it like some exo-skeleton.

It was through the smoke and still falling debris that a purple, glowing ball flew and grazed the alien warrior's shoulder, disrupting the Tenno in not just thoughts. A loud 'CRASH' signified its contact with a nearby building but Hayden heard no such thing as his senses were immediately disoriented and his shields disrupted, "_Damn Magnetism…" _

The red glow of his shields being reduced to nothing gave away his position as the blonde haired young man barrelled straight at Hayden's position. His advesary's abilities and penchant to recklessly charge created the unpleasant image of a cross between Mag and a Nox. Dodging to the side, Umbra managed to slip in a single slash with his Skiajati while following up with a burst from his rifle at Carrera's exposed back. Nonplussed by the hits, the Sumeragi Adept recovered, laughing all the way. "It has been too long since I've had a fight such as this. Thou has shown thine skills admirably. Regretfully, I must draw this duel to a close."

Septimal energy built within the palm of the Adept's hands as he chanted, "**Greedy arms reach out!"** Umbra responded by unloading an entire clip of Zakti darts in the Adept's proximity. Not unlike Mag's Magnetize, the darts flew off course and into the build up of magnetic power. The gas released were ineffectual as it was simply sucked deeper into the glowing, dark purple ball.

"**To possess all within sight!"** A rocket was unloaded and was met with a similar fate to the previous darts. "_Shit, I need to get away from here, fast." _The Tenno did not know what the Adept was pulling, but he knew it wasn't anything good.

"**Their grasp an awful vice! Quasar Collapse!" **The ball, reaching its apex of intensity, was thrown Hayden's way, stopping a few feet away midair. Air was suctioned as ruined street and other debris were dragged and obliterated upon being sucked into the black hole- like ball. Umbra planted his sword into the ground, maintaining a vice grip as the clothes on his body fluttered in the ball's direction.

A crack was heard and Umbra's featureless face saw the creep of cracks from the damaged street reaching where he had planted his Skiajati. Planting his feet on the ground, the Warframe exerted as much Void power it could muster but it was for naught. The moment the Skiajati was dislodged, Umbra gravitated into the ball of magnetic Septimal energy.

The ball folded in upon itself, detonating in an orange and purple explosion. Exerting a breath while taking in the ruined and now dead street, absent of all living beings except him, the Adept soaked in the ecstasy he was in. "_This inexhaustible POWER!"_ There was no familiar burn that accompanied his usage of his Septima but that was fine. How he felt now was not unlike the same high of satisfaction and pumping in his muscles after thoroughly working out his body. He was completely addicted…

It was this moment of orgasm-like high did he look up to the energy barrier of the 'Amaterasu' folding away. Orange eyes widened "_The terrorists! They managed to breach our defenses?!" _A smile crept up behind his Men- Yoroi. The thought of fighting worthy opponents like the one he just faced sent shivers all throughout his body. Distantly, he noticed the absence of his Adept Hunter team but he didn't care. The focus upon the distant radio tower was all encompassing. Greed had completely overtaken the Adept's mind as he broke off in a sprint.

…

… _Unairu… _

…

It took a moment for Carrera to notice that the scenery around him wasn't moving. He looked down and noticed glowing bindings wrapped around his biceps, legs, and waist. "_What is this…!" _He would be incapable of dwelling on these thoughts any further as suddenly a slash and an intense burning feeling made itself known, running diagonal down his left shoulder down to his upper right pelvis. This was immediately followed by a slash straight through his abdomen.

Finally getting a look at his assailant, his glowing eyes met the featureless face of Umbra. "H-how did thou…?!" Before the Adept could finish his question, a black energy bubbled out of the fatal wounds received from the Warframe's Exalted Blade. Quickly, the blackness of the energy enveloped his entire form, the Tenno stepping back instinctively. Exploding into orange lights, the fragments of Septimal energy coalesced into a foreign, impractical blade that glowed an orange color. It cracked as the lights went out. The inert, damaged weapon disappeared in motes of light, leaving Umbra alone.

Finally having a moment of calm, the warrior noticed the absence of the 'Amaterasu' barrier in Japan's skyline. Looking at where the Sumeragi Adept once stood, he pondered, "_Why did he burst apart like that on death? Was it because of whatever that blade was?" _Hayden killed such contemplations as the Warframe dashed into the shadows of a nearby alleway. His job was done and due to the nature of his 'recruitment' he wasn't going to stick around longer than he needed to.

* * *

The battle between Jota and Gibril had reached a stalemate that was quickly going to the Light Septima's favor. Though he had lost a few of his drones, which he used as a medium for his Setima, he was relatively unscathe. His rather, 'vertically challenged' opponent sported an admirable defense with all of the metals in her vicinity, but with some carefully applied pressure, he managed to wrestle much of her material away from her

At a standoff, the green haired young man spoke, "You've fought well despite the limits of your body…" Gibril grounded her teeth at the not so subtle jab at her height, "However, It looks like you've hit your limits!"

Panting like a dog, the Eden operative glared at the Lieutenant, "... Like hell I have…!"

Disappointed, the Light Adept replied, "Give it up. You can't continue fighting!"

At that point, the 'Metal' Septima user regained her breath and bit back at her opponent, "Shaddup!" Before she could unleash a tireade, both she and Jota's attention were drawn to the night sky as a distinct sound was heard.

Jota's eyes widened, "Impossible! The boundary…"

As the light of 'Amaterasu' disappeared from the night sky, Gibril finished Jota's words, "vanished…"

Gibril recovered from the development faster than her opponent, turning her head to the closer 'Amaterasu' Radio Tower. Over the course of the fight, Jota had been slowly dragging her away from the ocean and that worked to her disadvantage as she was separated from more raw material but now, now she was in the optimal position for what she was about to do. "Looks like Teseo did a good job out there!"

Still in shock, Jota muttered to himself, "The fort of national defense… impossible!"

Metal shuddered as it rose, half submerged from the water after it was discarded during the opening volley of ship originated projectiles. The female Adept's brows were furrowed in concentration,"_This is my chance!" _

Snapping out of his shock, the dark sea green haired Sumeragi Adept bore witness to Gibril straddling a large piece of a formerly sunken ship as she flew by, "She's riding on the steel pillar she threw?! What a mad child!" He focused on his Septimal energies as he quickly followed the speeding hunk of metal.

"Septimas truly are like swiss army knives!" Yelled the speeding child.

"I won't let you go!" Uttered Jota as he materialized from his light speed enhanced sprint.

"Outta my way!" growled the red haired girl.

She let out a warcry as Jota attempted to intercept but suddenly found his muscles freezing in place, "Wh-what the…! My body won't move!"

Fast approaching, she yelled over the high winds at the incapacitated Adept, "I'm controlling the blood flowing through you body!" Jota let out a startled, questioning sound as Gibril continued, "I can only momentarily stop living humans but this'll suffice!" She flew past him now.

Regaining a small amount of movement in his arm, Jota tapped his communicator, "Can you restore the system?" The soldier on the other end of the line promptly responded, "No good sir! Looks like it'll take some time, sir!"

Defeated, Jota murmured to himself, "We're done for…"

With Gibril, she was rapidly nearing the courtyard entrance of the Radio Tower, lifting the hunk of metal as she aimed for the Boundary Repeater, "Alright! I'm gonna blow it up myself!" Suddenly, a light distracted her. "W-what the? The skies are… brightening?"

Just as surprised, if not more so that the still flying Gibril, Jota was slack jawed, "A pillar of light… That's…!" Tapping his communicator to get the word out on all channels, he vocalized on all frequencies, "All men! Get away from the 'Ame no Uzume', else you'll be struck by the satellite laser!"

All frequencies across the communication lines lit up, "W-what! L-laser?!" Suddenly a beam of light seared a path within the Radio Tower's courtyard, sending Gibril and Sumeragi soldiers alike flying who were too close to the blast radius.

The acrid scent of molten concrete and smoke filled Gibril's nose as she sat in awe of the laser's aftermath, "S-such power!"

Meanwhile, a Sumeragi soldier got on the line with Jota, "The boundary's system has been restored, sir!" Another voice lit up over comms, "'God's Incarnation' deploys again, sir!"

Overhearing this through her hacked radio, the Eden operative cursed, "Fuck, shit!" Her communicator lit up with a call, "Tenjian to Gibril: the mission is over; come back here, now."

Thoroughly incensed, she growled, "Over?! Hey wait a minute! I haven't blown up the repeater and-" Tenjian cut her off, his tone more forceful this time, "Did you not listen to what I said? The mission's over."

"Over…?" giving up, she called back, "Fine, got it… I only need to leave, alright?!" Picking herself off the ground, the punk girl left, unseen by the celebrating Sumeragi soldiers.

"WE WON!" chorused the soldiers. The domed headed soldiers celebrated loudly but in stark contrast, Jota quietly stood to the side, "That light… was it… ?"

* * *

Crimson boots met the gravel and occasional piece of debris that was strewn about on the ruined street. Stopping at a certain spot, Copen crouched down and grasped a small, near unnoticeable shard. He stored it away as he scanned the surroundings. "_Such destructive power from these 'Glaives'... even more motivation to strike down Sumeragi!"_

The hooded young teen continued looking for more of those ebony shards that fell from the dead Carerra's Glaive. His thoughts drifted towards the humanoid who had taken down the Adept. "_That black being, what could he be to take down a weaponized Adept like that?" _

Something stirred deep within the boy. He couldn't put his finger on why he felt the way he did when looking at the alien being. Shoving those thoughts aside, Copen continued his search. At some point, a woman clad in maid garb joined the young teen in his search.

Though Nori and he had taken down the Adept Hunter squad from the shadows and now needn't worry about this scene being combed over as quickly, the authorities will still eventually reach this site. They had to find however many Glaive pieces until then in haste, and make it back home to continue his weapons research.

* * *

Gunvolt slowly ate his dinner as his thoughts were adrift. It had been a few days since he fully recovered from the infiltration recovery mission that he had failed. That sting of failure stung him even though Asimov had forgiven him. No matter what the blonde did, he just couldn't get that swordsman out of his head. That skill and ability to predict his moves. He even dodged his Astra Sphere as if it were nothing!

Electricity sparked a little, the Azure Thunderclap Adept noticing from the reflection of his spoon where at that point he clamped down on his Septima.

The sound of a door opening disrupted Gunvolt from his thoughts as he looked up at Asimov's form. "It is nearing time when I introduce you to the QUILL Operatives that have arrived from Asia." Tilting his head, the head of QUILL noticed Gunvolt's dour mood, "Is there something wrong, GV?"

He let out a sigh, "I… am I truly ready for participating in actual missions?" Behind his sunglasses, Asimov's eyes widened in realization, "I mean… I failed my first mission. Even if it was off the record, I still failed. I-"

The older man cut his blonde charge off, "Don't say that. From your training and your skills it is apparent that you are ready. That encounter in the tunnels against that strange swordsman was merely a fluke. Please do not think that I will belittle or discard you because you had suddenly fought against an enemy you were not prepared to face."

Gunvolt's eyes met Asimov's as the older man continued, "I trust you, and besides, you're still young. With time, you will become much more skillful than you are now plus, that Septima of yours isn't fully developed or trained just yet. It can still evolve and be improved upon." There was a pause as Asimov approached and placed a hand on Gunvolt's shoulder, "With both your spirit and your abilities, I'm sure that you'll become the best operative QUILL has to offer."

With his small speech done, Asimov walked to the door, stopping to turn his head back to the still sitting Gunvolt, "I've left the training room open for you. The duo of QUILL operatives will convene here in 16 hours. You can train until then. Just make it on time." After Gunvolt nodded his head in an affirmative, Asimov left.

Readjusting his seating Gunvolt contemplated again, "_Do I really have as much potential as you say, Asimov?"_

* * *

**Took a bit to churn out. This semester has been hectic though I'm rounding into the last week of class. Expect more chapters to be pumped out. I've made a select few edits to a few previous chapters as I've realized a timeline inconsistency regarding position of power (AGAIN) with Nova. I also mislabeled Amaterasu Radio Tower as the Utu Media Tower. my bad. Anyways, the next few chapters should be non combat ones with the aftermath and at least 6 months of time passing, so look forward to that. **

**Regarding the chapter itself, it's a head canon of mine that Monica and Zeno were Asian QUILL Operatives as we hear no sign of them after GV1. Considering the actions of Eden right before GV2 and how Xiao, an ex QUILL Operative, made no mention of the two, I think they died or went into deep hiding after Eden did a hostile takeover. **

**With the Carrera fight, yes Hayden jumped out from Umbra to teleport the both of them out of Quasar Collapse's range and he whipped out Magus Lockdown and used Unairu to cloak himself and Umbra to get close enough to the Adept to strike him down. When it comes to fights, since I've locked Hayden's arsenal to Umbra, his loadout before his appearance in the GV verse, and whatever things he can scavenge, fights will have a penchant for ending with a burst of damage that destroys the enemy. **

**For those who are part of the GV side of fanbase, there have been a few butterflies in how events play out due to Hayden's appearance that will be addressed a bit by Nova in the later chapter. This is mostly a reminder for myself.**

**Regarding Parazon usage. Such a massive thing being used is going to cause visible damage to a GV verse console. That doesn't discount that the Parazon WILL be used eventually, especially since Kuva is in this verse from the Grineer ship. **

**With this post chapter business, should I post a stat sheet on the end these chapters with the stats of GV and WF characters? If so, what should I put on it? Along with feedback, criticism, and mistakes, post your response in the reviews along with a reason. Have a good day**


	15. Chapter 15: Debrief

**All characters belong to their respective owners**

* * *

Location: Sumeragi HQ

Lounging in his chair, Nova looked out to the city below, smoke and fire indicative of the chaotic aftermath of the recent terrorist attack. Taking a glance at the still static camera feeds on his office computer, Nova chastised himself, "Good grief, I wasn't expecting to have to use this…" Turning his head down to his lap, Nova stared at the veritable doomsday device that came in the form of the opened briefcase laptop. The small monitor had its target coordinates honed in on the 'Amaterasu's courtyard. Nova internally shuddered at what 'Tenjian' and his ilk would have done if they got their hands on such technology.

Nova closed the briefcase, tucking it under his desk and turning his attention to the burning cityscape. Suddenly, his office desktop monitor rang, drawing the youth's attention away. Seeing Jota's name over the caller ID, Nova picked up. "Lord Tsukuyomi," came Jota's familiar voice.

Already having an idea of his trusted confidant's question, Nova preemptively answered, "Jota-san. I'm sorry, you didn't get hit did you?"

Murmuring, more to himself, rather than directly to Nova, Jota spoke aloud, "Thought so… That satellite irradiation we just had, that was your doing."

Nova affirmed, "Correct, the Sumeragi- controlled artificial satellite, the 'Star Dragon'. You have seen it in action before, no?"

The Light Septima user responded, "I thought as much, sir. It's publically a weather observation satellite and its usage during the _Grande Divisor_ incident was covered up. But during this terrorist attack..."

The young Sumeragi representative finished his fellow Adept's thought, "Correct on all accounts. We were trying our utmost to hide its military uses but today was an emergency. So I had to use it."

With regret coloring his face and voice, Jota spoke, "I shall offer no excuses. I, a cornerstone of national defense, couldn't stand up to the challenge and thus I forced you, sir, to deploy a classified weapon."

Nova's eyes widened slightly before consoling his turquoise haired friend, "Oh no, you needn't be so pessimistic to think that only negative things came of this attack." Jota tried to interject, but Nova continued, "Though the veil hiding the 'Star Dragon' has been fully torn off, its known presence will serve as a deterrent to Anti- Sumeragi forces such as Eden. Not only this, with its display of force, the public will be assured that they are in good hands. Jota, you defended the 'Ame- no- Uzume' admirably. You did an excellent job out there."

Jota looked like he wanted to protest, but finally relented to his superior's words, "I do not deserve praise, sir. From this incident, I will continue to train as my pride as one of the cornerstones of national defense demands it. I, Jota, will continue to devote myself to Sumeragi!" With that declaration, Jota cut off his transmission.

Nova chuckled in amusement, "His loyalty is of great help indeed" The monitor rang again, this time the caller ID identified the caller as Merak. Nova answered and spoke first, "Merak- kun, good job out there"

"Yeah, don't mention it." Came the brunette's voice, "Now, as a reward, can you build me an exclusive net game or something like that?"

Humoring the notorious, lazy gamer, Nova responded, "Oh man… That might cost me..."

Subtly, Merak shifted to a more business-like tone, "Besides that, there is something bothering me. I'm reporting it just in case."

Interest peaked, Nova asked, "What is it?"

The Slothful Conjurer reported, "The system went down, yet… I don't think that Eden Adept did it."

The purple haired Adept tilted his head, "What?"

There was a tinge of uncertainty in Merak's voice as he relayed his hypothesis, "It's very probable that a third party apart from Eden did this. I don't think it means too much trouble, but I recommend more vigilance in the country's monitoring of domestic terrorist activity."

The mightiest of Sumeragi's Adepts heeded the hacker's suggestion, "I see. Thanks for the advice"

Shifting back to his much more casual, laid back attitude, the Conjurer replied, "You don't need to thank me, I just want to avoid problems later down the line because if something happens, you'll ask me to solve it, right?"

Nova nearly snorted, "Yeah, when that time comes I'll be expecting a good job."

Merak let out an exasperated huff, "How annoying… I'm signing off." Not even waiting for Nova to respond, the window displaying Merak closed.

Amusement still on Nova Tsukuyomi's face slipped off as he turned his attention to reports rolling in of the damages accrued throughout the city and Sumeragi casualties. What drew most of his attention though was towards the conditions of both Adepts Viper and Carrera.

Viper was once a gang leader whose gang dominated all others in the country, his Septima power unrivalled when up against other Adepts from a similar rung of society as him. He was a recruit to Sumeragi, brought in as a response to the growing number of successful raids on Sumeragi connected facilities outside of Japan. Nova's former superiors had demanded that he scouted and, if necessary, forcibly recruited the gangster to Sumeragi. Their fight had decimated a city block's streets and he still stood in rebellion despite the unfair odds he was facing up against Nova.

It was convenient though, that on nearby televisions there was a live performance of the digital idol, Lumen, that pacified the explosive youth. He had been enraptured by the _Muse's_ song. The youth joined Sumeragi for the sole purpose of getting closer to the idol that he had become infatuated with.

Working up the ladder, he eventually became Overseer at Sumeragi's Biochem Plant and was adequate at his job. He deployed during this night's incident with a contingent of Sumeragi Assassins and the usual contingent of soldiers and mechs. As of now, he was in a coma that would last for at least a week brought on by head trauma while also recovering from several cracked bones. The train he was on, whose destination was the Amaterasu Radio Tower, had been derailed like many similar Sumeragi military vehicles. A large chunk of his men were killed too. Troubling news.

Looking at a worse case in Carrera, Nova's frown deepened.

Carrera was from a clan of warriors that, like many other similar bloodlines that survived to the modern world, established a dojo where they remained unified and honed skills that were rendered unsuitable for practical combat in the world of firearms and mechanized warfare. It was from one of these clans did Carrera rise as a prodigy with his awakening of his Septima which he blended with his martial arts. He combined it into a self taught, specialized form called "Magnetic Arts". With it, he dominated other clans.

Unlike Viper, when given the opportunity to meet other Adepts and face them in combat, he gladly joined Sumeragi. For his preference of fighting a 'worthy fight' he had been assigned to Sumeragi's specialized Adept Hunter Squad, rising to be leader. Though he would leave his targets maimed, he was a reliable asset.

Much of his value came from his Septima of Magnetism. Though a small number of other Adepts have been recorded of having that sort of power, Carrera's variant was strong enough to even nullify other Septima abilities. He was perfect for subduing other Adepts.

To further set him apart from others and make him a more effective tool, he had been chosen to undergo Septima Glaive transfer. His Septima would be hooked up to a construct called a 'Glaive' and any Septimal energy his body produced would be siphoned into the blade. When given the 'OK' from Sumeragi, the Adept with his Septima stored in the Glaive, would regain access along with an inexhaustible supply of Septimal Energy. Their bodies, as a result of the amount of Septimal energy flowing through them, would change to a more 'weaponized' state. This experimental process was pioneered by Nova himself, and with Nova's success a second Adept was chosen in Carrera to undergo this same process.

It was a shame that the young man was now dead. From the state of his cracked and unresponsive Glaive, 'Rockslicer', the man had been killed in action. Deeper investigation of the battle site where he and his squad were last seen yielded the corpses of the Adept Hunter Squad. Early autopsies into the bodies showing a combination of gun fire and stab wounds as the cause of their demise.

A notification from his computer monitor interrupted his thoughts. Seeing it as a report, Nova opened the documentation and read. A small smile graced the young Sumeragi representative's lips, "At least that got done…" He scrolled through the documentation, satisfied that the important subjects of interest from Site O had been moved and were being securely stored within Sumeragi HQ. As he went through the images of the artifacts moved from the sight in the wake of its attack from an unknown interloper several weeks ago, his eyes caught something familiar in a picture of an artifact.

Nova immediately pulled up another window, this one being a video recovered from the data stream of Carrera's Adept Hunter Squad's drone. It recorded the opening minutes of his battle against the unknown being that presumably knocked Viper into a coma.

Though the results of the battle weren't shown due to the destruction of the drone before the fight's conclusion, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Carrera had lost the battle. That though, was besides the point. The battle, in spite of the poor lighting due to the nature and aftermath of Carrera's Septima on the area around him, the black figure of Carrera's enemy combatant was clear.

Pausing the footage of one of the clear shots displaying the unknown combatant in full detail, he looked back at the autopsy photo of the humanoid relic. The fossilized humanoid found in Site O had been found within the 'gate' room in the center of the ruin complex. Unlike the old remains of armor and advanced firearms, this one was completely intact. From the picture, it was apparent that this humanoid was female from its full hips to its moderate bust. Its body's composition was a mixture of, as of yet, unknown metals that accurately emulated the human body to a T, though what powered this being was completely unknown.

The familiar stature, and now clear details of gold armor and fabric of Carrera's final opponent's ebony form that displayed this creature's alien nature, made it apparent that it was the very same figure Nova saw from the low quality pictures salvaged from the wreckage of the Arctic base. Its form held a startling resemblance to the fossilized humanoid found in Site O. In spite of the thick crust that had been built on top of the female subject's body from a millennia of rotting underground, its features of metal wrapping around its bust, forearms, thighs, and over its head in an oddly back heavy helmet, were all too similar to the alien being that ran amok on Sumeragi forces earlier that night.

This observation sparked many trains of thought about what the being was, but as quickly as these thoughts surfaced, Nova quelled them in an act of self control.

Taking a calming breath, the one bearing the title of 'The Mighty' muttered to himself, "I can't lose sight of the bigger picture. Despite how much I want to investigate more, this is just a small detail in the events tonight. There are far more important things that I must do."

With a moment of pause, Nova closed the windows of the alien fighting Carrera and of the Site O documentation. He needed to take full advantage of the position he had been put in with Eden's attack, and that would take his entire focus to succeed in the endeavors he had in mind.

* * *

Location: Apartment 325

A drawn out breath escaped Hayden's lips as he reclined on his couch. The entire apartment was dark, only lit up by the lights outside. Making eye contact with Umbra, who had his back leaning against a wall and his form shrouded in shadow, Hayden got up to the bedside desk and prepped the fabricator.

With the machine warming up in the background, the Tenno pulled up his laptop. Taking a wireless mouse, he opened a window to his social media account. Spending a minute to type, he gave a status update then waited.

During this time, the Tenno began sorting out pots and pans. Taking a look at the time with his phone and seeing how late into the night it was, Hayden consigned himself to eating a snack.

It was as he rifled through his fridge did a slightly synthesized male voice come from his laptop, "Operator? Are you there?"

A slight smile graced his lips as said Operator closed the fridge door and appeared within view of the laptop's camera.

"Oh Operator it IS you! **t**O**o**K **yO**U **L**o**Ng En**O**Ug**H**!" **

Stifling a chuckle, the black haired teen responded, "Yes, it's been a while and we have a lot of catching up to do**." **

After making sure the connection was 'airtight', with the laptop connecting with Ordis's Cephalon Weave and covered by several layers of encryption, the two got talking. From Hayden's current status as a delivery boy to his most recent independently undertaken missions, the conversation went on for half an hour.

"There was something troubling that I found, Ordis." At the Cephalon's prompting to continue, Hayden spoke once more, "I… found data concerning a special package which I intercepted and stole…" The Operator trailed off before opening one of the kitchen cabinets and taking out a box. Wordlessly, the teen opened the box, revealing its contents to the camera.

The Cephalon was shocked, "Operator, that's a…"

"It's a Kuva vial." Finished Hayden, as he took the vial from the box and held it up to the camera.

"That's not the only thing I found that came from the Origin System in this country." The Operator continued, "There is a site where ancient Orokin technology had been discovered by Sumeragi more than a year ago. It's somewhere underground and I know little else of its location. Considering the advancements Sumeragi has made with its technology, such as its nation encompassing barrier, and the nearly finished construction of an orbital station called "_Firmament", _we might be seeing the rise of something akin to the Orokin Empire." _Especially if what experiments Pamela Isley endured under Sumeragi custody are the norm with these 'Adepts'. _"It's for this reason, Ordis, I will need you on standby as I will likely be doing more overt operations to sabotage and steal from Sumeragi besides the original objective of information gathering and thievery."

There was silence between the two Origin System natives as Cephalon Ordis processed the information just revealed to him and the change in mission objective. The Cephalon spoke up, "Tell me Operator, how did you find out about this infor-"

Before Ordis could continue, his Operator's phone rang. Shifting on his stool, the Operator took out his phone and his gaze narrowed upon seeing the Caller ID. Dark grey eyes glinting with a serious aura drifted between the laptop camera and Umbra, who had been listening to the conversation in the background. Sticking his pointer finger over his lips as gesture of silence, the Operator held his phone upside down and covered both the front and back cameras before answering the call, pointedly denying the request for video call.

Unexpectedly for the Tenno, the expected smug face of Teseo didn't come onto the screen. Instead, the visage of a youthful Chinese male with white hair appeared.

There was a subtle, amused sound from the unknown youth, "I had expected to converse with Hayden Tenno in video chat, but it seems that courtesy hasn't been reciprocated; unless i've got the wrong number that is."

The black haired teen's response was cold and straight to the point, "Oh no, you have the right number. I am Hayden Tenno and that courtesy won't be reciprocated no matter the circumstance. Besides, it's rude not to introduce yourself first; what's your name and who do you work for?"

A smile graced the Chinese's lips, "Where are my manners, I am Tenjian, a leader of Eden, specifically the leader of Eden's Elite, the Grimoire Seven! You, Hayden Tenno, have met one of my subordinates, Teseo. He is our resident hacker and promised you a reward two weeks ago which I will deliver to you now."

Unimpressed, the black haired teen responded with a subtle edge, "And? I know someone of such an 'exalted' position wouldn't simply give me a call just to hand out a reward."

The identified leader of G7's smile widened as he spoke, "Straight to the point, I like that. Yes, I called you to apologize, on behalf of Eden, for Teseo's actions against you. It was never our intent to antagonize or pressure you to aid us. His actions are his alone, but it was due to my inability to reign him in that caused you unneeded duress." Taking a breath, Tenjian then continued, "Now with that out of the way, I extend to you an invitation. You are an individual of great power who is not associated with the feeble weaklings under Sumeragi or any group known to Eden. It is for that, that I invite you to join us."

Dark grey eyes narrowed and glowed as their owner's originally tense look turned to visible rage, "No. Now give me my promised information and we can never talk again."

The smile on the Chinese youth's face fell away, "Can you at the very least be partners with us. I can even make accommodations for you. A higher cut. We cou-"

The Tenno's free hand tightened into a fist, "The answer is still 'no'."

Tenjian frowned, a hint of irritation on his face, "Then why? We can accomplish so much together, and you'll benefit."

The Tenno's reply was heated, "I have no interest in whatever petty conflict you and your Adepts have. And don't hang over the so-called 'debt' I accrued in the _Grande Divisor. _I've fulfilled that with the mission I undertook. Now give me my promised information."

Tenjian looked away, irritation and regret coloring his pale face, "... Alright. But I'll give it on one condition"

Looking up to his laptop monitor and Umbra for a brief moment, Hayden uttered, "Shoot"

Tenjian's gaze aimed squarely at the camera, eyes seemingly making contact with Hayden's, "You will not interfere with Eden's operations and we will not interfere with yours. With this, I and no other member of Eden will have to speak with you again."

The glow in Hayden's eyes subsided, "Deal."

Tenjian's anger he had picked up from Hayden seemed to fade as he gave his parting words, "The information will be delivered to you a minute after this call. Goodbye."

Wordlessly, Hayden closed the phone call and turned over to his laptop, already having an idea for what questions his Cephalon had. "It was two weeks ago," started Hayden, "That an Adept hacker named Teseo threatened me with revealing information of my person to Sumeragi if I didn't comply and assist him and his kin with an attack on Japan's National Defense grid a handful of hours ago."

Ordis was about to make follow up questions, but those were halted immediately when the Tenno spoke once more, "How he got such information on me was a combination of sheer luck and circumstantial evidence." The black haired teen paused and took up the Kuva vial and its package before continuing, "They managed to collect data detailing our calls to one another during the _Grande Divisor_ mission. It was with this along with mistakes on my part in infiltration that resulted in camera footage of both my face and the operation I had conducted with Umbra in stealing this very vial, that Teseo gained enough information to blackmail me."

A frown took over Hayden's face as he hung his head down, "And before you start blaming yourself, Ordis, there is little use in lingering on both of our failures. From now on, we communicate with this setup. No leap-frogging off of communication lines because it's been made readily apparent there are people at equal or higher footing at tracking people down than even the Corpus." Muttering mostly to himself, the Tenno added, "and there's only one Tenno in this Star System to track down…"

Hesitantly, the Cephalon presented a question, "Despite your misgivings, Operator, couldn't it have benefitted us to have taken up **-t**h**aT p**A**sT**Y **s**C**u**m**Bag- **Tenjian's invitation and used them to secure supplies for our ship's repair? They are in conflict with Sumeragi."

Still incensed from the earlier conversation with the mentioned leader of G7, Hayden took a deep breath to suppress some irritation before speaking, "We've had a similar conversation before, Ordis. I refuse to associate myself with external groups. Far too many backdoor dealings and politics that would only chain us down and easily abandon us when we've ceased being useful to their operations. This is especially so since this world isn't even our own. Best not to be involved with people we won't ever see again after we've concluded operations here. Innocents or not, they don't matter to us."

There were several seconds of silence from Ordis's end before he responded, "As you say, Operator."

All three Origin System natives began strategizing well into midnight. Their discussion of locations to hit taking center stage once Hayden's reward for his actions earlier that night reached his phone.

* * *

Location: Kamizono Estate, Basement

The sound of an explosion tore through the mostly empty basement.

Lifting the smoking barrel, Copen grimaced as he looked over the charred dummy that stood 10 meters away from his current position.

He looked down at the skeleton of a weapon in his hand. The contraption was quite heavy and its components glowed a faint red. Formulas, calculations, and future designs for his prototype weapon ran through his head as he flicked off several switches on his contraption.

Walking over to a nearby laptop, the silver haired child genius began jotting notes for future use. "_Explosions from 'Explosion Septima' currently are only as powerful as what a regular explosive can pull off. More potent data besides DNA is required; likely a Glaive fragment." _

After a further few notes were jotted down regarding modular designs for Copen's ideal 'anti-Adept' weapon, the boy turned his attention on a metal capsule that emitted a purple glow.

Carefully taking it and placing it next to an organized set of parts, Copen began reassembling his disassembled 'Border' pistol. Reverence came from the boy as he rebuilt the gun, admiration of his father's, Dr. Kamizono, designs in ideal anti-Adept weapons wrapped into the small form of a single pistol.

With the internals still exposed, Copen slotted the metal capsule before completing the side arm.

It was as he tested the weight of the weapon and began setting up target dummies for weapon experimentation that a voice crept into the Copen's ear, a dead ringer of his own, "_Will this weapon be enough? Will it be enough to stand up against the 'demonic' Adepts? The ebony figure? If only you-"_

"Young master, your tea is ready." Came Nori's voice, the maid approaching with a tray of tea and snacks. Snapping out of his trancelike state, the young Kamizono thanked his faithful servant and dismissed her.

As Copen took a sip and took a rest from his weapons development, thoughts of the alien being he had seen earlier that night plagued his mind. The boy had read up on Carrera's frightening abilities that made him ideal in incapacitating or killing other Adepts. If his modification of his 'Border' has gone as planned, he had just upgraded his father's sidearm to become even more of a 'silver bullet' against Adepts.

Although, doubts plagued his mind as he recalled the glimpses of both the trail of destruction the swordsman left in his wake and in Carrera's final battle. The 'black swordsman' had effortlessly dispatched scores of Sumeragi soldiers single handedly without showing so much as a hint of tiring before fighting two Adepts within minutes of both fights.

Even though he had been dealt a handful of glancing blows from Carrera's power he didn't even so much as flinch from the hits when reports detailed Adepts falling to 'Magnetic Arts' from simply being in the vicinity of the Septima. He just kept fighting and eventually overcame the Sumeragi Adept when the Adept's guard was down. Copen's replication of Septimas with his current research could only allow him to use an Adept's Septima to a certain degree. With his skills and resources, would it all be enough to fight that swordsman on even footing?

Nori stood a distance away, out of sight near the elevator up to ground level. Her maroon eyes gave a hint of the worry she had for her young charge as the youth worked tirelessly in his crusade against Adepts. He had been working like this late into the night for quite a while now, designing his armor to maximize protection while not sacrificing his mobility. Now though, something was off with Copen. Ever since his infiltration of 'Site O' a few weeks back, he zones out at random intervals.

"_With what I've seen so far, I can't pinpoint what has changed in Copen. I can only watch and be ready if trouble comes from this change."_ Reaffirming her objective, the faithful servant of the Kamizono family maintained her vigilance over Copen late into the night.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Took a while for this chapter to come out cause I'm juggling writing this and the other two fanfics while dealing with procrastinating and FGO events. Also I am aware of how self contradicting Hayden's actions and what he says are, Ordis does, too.**

**Next chapter will be a shorter followup with the morning after and the chapter afterward (Ch. 17) will be a sort of side story about a small piece of the Operator's background. Also I made a slight edit of Chapter 9 regarding his right eye socket pains. Details on Hayden's and potentially other character's pasts that wouldn't crop up in regular story progression will be detailed in these side story chapters. **

**As always leave constructive criticism and thoughts on the plot in the reviews. Have a good day. **


	16. Chapter 16: Consequence

**All characters belong to their respective owners. **

* * *

Location: Somewhere within the City

It was morning. An air of fear gripped the crowds moved along the streets. Portions of the city were cordoned off, the damages caused by crashed military vehicles and assets obstructing common roads to work.

Cars beeped incessantly as the roads grew congested. The numbers of workers forced to walk to work due to the incapcitated city infrastructure clogged the roadsides. The power outages caused by the destruction of many electric transformers didn't help matters at all. Not only were the train systems down, but the traffic lights in most areas failed to function properly.

It was over this noise that the street TVs caught the attention of all passing by.

A live broadcast from JNN and other news stations gave the audience all over Japan a glimpse into a crowded room where a Sumeragi representative, Nova Tsukuyomi, stood behind a microphone filled podium.

Pictures were audibly being taken as the young Sumeragi representative unflinchingly began his speech, "The attack we suffered the other day made it clear enough that the threat of an external enemy is not mere fiction. It exists in reality as well!"

There was a dramatic pause as cameras still audibly snapped, "This time, we managed to miraculously contain such a threat with no civilian casualties but, we do not know when that threat will strike again. It could be tomorrow or in a year's time, however, that threat is very real."

Lifting his eyes to meet the cameras, Nova spoke to the audience, "As a result, projects to further strengthen security and the strength of the Boundary have commenced. Alongside this, though presumptuous of us given our performance, we of the Sumeragi Group will be taking over National Defense management in its entirety."

Audible gasps and surprise came from both the jam packed room Nova was in and those watching the speech live on TV.

Soaking the expressions and emotions of those around him, Nova made a declaration, "It is mine and Sumeragi's ardent wish to safeguard this beautiful nation from the threat of terrorists and others who seek to threaten the common people. I, as head of National Defense, and Sumeragi devote ourselves to the cause of order, stability, and security for the nation of Japan!"

Clapping began from both those in the same room as the new Head of National Defense and those watching the broadcast in the streets. The expression of the masses' good favor quickly became near deafening.

While this was going on, a certain, lone flamboyantly dressed man with long blonde hair with pink tips that reached his waist looked on. His face relaxed into a small smile looked at the proceedings as he murmured to himself, "Ho? I see… The event last night is being used by Sumeragi as propaganda to take the helm of National Defense…"

The people around were caught up in their celebration of good news as the man proclaimed, "How cunning of them! Such a stratagem reeks of... LOVE!"

Suddenly a vibration accompanied by muffled ringing came from the man's pants. Picking it up with pink manicured fingers, a male voice came from the other end, "Looks like you managed to sneak into Japan."

Dark magenta eyes trailed up to the streets, making eye contact with a supposedly short circuited street camera. A near unnoticeable green glow highlighted the camera's internal components, barely visible from the opaque glass that protected the technology from the weather.

Winking at the camera, the man replied, "Yes, all thanks to the LOVE our comrades poured into that attack."

A subtle smug tone emerged from the strait-laced young man on the other end, "The attack to breach the Boundary was all a distraction. Sumeragi can't imagine that our true goal was to allow your infiltration there."

Closing his eyes, the man exclaimed, "Yes! A truly perfect plot. It is undoubtedly a fervent display of LOVE"

Unfazed by his eccentric comrade's outburst, the voice on the other end spoke with regret in his voice, "Your job has now begun. It grieves my heart to burden you with this mission alone but, take care and accomplish your goals."

The blonde replied in an assuring tone, "Right, I know that. I shall fulfill this mission with my LOVE..."

A manicured finger made for the hang up button but the caller on the other end stopped the man, "By the way, there's something I must ask you."

"What is it?" asked the blonde.

"Was there someone else, when the Boundary went down, who managed to infiltrate the country?"

The man hummed, tapping a pink nail on the bottom of his chin, "Now that you mention it… a duo did arrive during the gap. Despite being a man and a woman, I didn't feel any LOVE from them."

The voice digested the information, "Thought as much…"

"Got a hunch of who they were?" inquired the man.

The voice took a moment before responding, "...No. Be careful, it seems there's a party other than Tenno and Sumeragi in Japan. Keep watch."

Upon the voice mentioning Tenno, the man made a guess, "Was your LOVE refused, brother?"

The voice became audibly heated as he answered, "Yes, he blew me off. Even going so far as to disregard our righteous cause as something 'petty'. Undoubtedly, much of his vitriol stemmed from his interaction with Teseo. He and I will have some words after this on proper conduct."

In his near teasing voice, the man spoke, "No need to be so harsh, Teseo was merely showing his LOVE for our group. You don't need to punish him."

The voice grunted before posing a final question to his sibling, "I take it that Tenno is a subject you'll be investigating along with Sumeragi?"

The man's smile became near devilish as the TV cut to the regular programming, displaying footage of a certain swordsman in black fighting a Sumeragi Adept, "Yes, yes he is."

* * *

Location: QUILL Hideout

Asimov's eyes were trained completely on his desktop monitor, his work as the founder of QUILL taking precedence over his usual morning routine. With the recent events opening the opportunity for his organization to sink its talons into the heart of Adept oppression, he had to capitalize and restructure operations to accommodate the Japanese branch- his branch's- growth with the addition of the two Chinese branch transfers.

Checking the computer's time, he took note of the number of hours before he and the two operatives were to convene and when he will introduce GV as a QUILL Operative.

The sound of an insulated mug being set down and the fridge door opening were clear signs of GV performing his morning routine consisting of pouring a cup of milk before preparing bacon and eggs for both himself and Asimov. The man took a gander at his young charge, noting that the Azure Striker had a troubled look on his face. "_There isn't much I can do for him right now." _Asimov turned back to his work, hearing GV using the remote to turn on the TV.

From what Asimov heard while still working, Nova was on national television as a response to what happened last night. The only nugget of information Asimov deemed valuable from the speech was Sumeragi's take over of National Defense. Asimov had suspected Tsukuyomi to take advantage of last night's Eden terrorist attack in such a way.

Internally, Asimov scoffed at the Sumeragi Adept's playing of the masses' nationalism. The prodigal child had long before held the powers of a Head of National Defense and then some, it was just that Japan's citizens were simply too blind to see it. All the broadcast did was make things official.

Resting his eyes for a brief moment, the sun glasses wearing man was about to continue his work when he heard a mug drop and its contents spilling onto the floor. Blue eyes peaked over his computer monitor as he took in Gunvolt's pale face.

Shock and fear was apparent as he stared at the TV which had switched to salvaged footage of the culprit behind the city's widespread infrastructure damage.

It was a strange black humanoid with gold armor lining its biceps, forearms, chest, and faceless head. Getting up from his previously seated position, the adult asked, "GV, what's wrong?"

Gunvolt's right hand trembled, a shaking that his left hand put a stop to with a grab, "That… that's him; the one that had beaten me that night!"

Attention completely drawn, Asimov listened to the news anchor's words of an international terrorist that was suspected of attacking and stealing resources from Sumeragi related sites in foreign countries and other corporations that have performed dealings with Sumeragi. The humanoid terrorist that, yesterday night, damaged the city's infrastructure, murdered a shocking number of Sumeragi personnel, and indirectly killed a small number of civil servants. It was one whose methodology, from eye witness testimonies and the salvaged video between it and one of Sumeragi's Adepts, showed an individual who didn't overtly rely upon Septima powers, but instead upon its inhuman physical prowess and skills with the gun and blade. The individual that the media called a modern 'Hitokiri'; a 'Manslayer'.

* * *

Location: Post Office

After fitting the uniform's cap snugly onto his head, Hayden looked over to the office TV with coffee mug in hand. His co workers' attention were all on the TV screen as the news person detailed his and Umbra's actions from eyewitness testimony and of the severity of said actions. Both shots of his battle with Carrera and with a police sketch of Umbra were on display. The Warframe being wanted, dead or alive, by local authorities.

The grip he had on his mug tightened. A swirl of emotions played within him, a cold poker face concealing the storm within from prying eyes. Taking a drink, the Operator turned on his heels and left the room, his body moving on autopilot to perform his day job while his mind worked on modifying his methodology from here on.

* * *

**Here's the rank edits kicking in with Nova officially becoming Head of National Defense. Anyways, this chapter was originally a part of Chapter 15 but I thought it would get too cluttered if it stayed as a part of the previous chapter. **

**The next chapter's plot skeleton has been written down but it will take a little bit to write it down as there is a pair of incomplete chapters for my other fanfics that I need to finish. One thing to note, next chapter will be written mostly from Ordis's perspective. **

**As always, leave feedback and critiques in reviews and have a good day. **


	17. Chapter 17: When the Sun was Eclipsed

**Took a long while to get out. Partially IRL stuff, partially splitting focus between fanfic chapters and writing a flashback chapter that won't be uploaded soon due to it being partially sensitive to a future (albeit minor) plot point, and mostly procrastination. **

**All characters belong to respective owners. I own zilch. **

* * *

Running Systems Diagnostics…

Hull integrity: Pristine

Landing Craft: All craft fully repaired and on Standby

Landing Craft Modules: Pristine

Stasis Chambers: Operational

Occupants: Alive in Cryo Sleep

Warframe Storage: Damaged, Inaccessible

Contents: Intact

Weapons Storage: Damaged, Inaccessible

Contents: Intact

Imperator Vandal: On Standby

Ivara: On Standby

Itzal: On Standby

The hum of technology, the occasional beeping of the foundry, and the muted sounds of water were Ordis's only company in the darkness at the bottom of the sea.

**-BZZZ-**

A worrying gurgling sound reached Ordis's audio receptors as the Operator doubled over, "I- I don't feel so good."

The elderly voice of Konzu spoke up, tinged in both worry and humour, "Ai yo, Ship Cephalon Surah, seems the Outworlder has contracted the Unum's Revenge. Depending on its severity, he might need to take some medicine for the next few days… Bad cuisine… Who made this dish?"

**-BZZZ-**

The voice of a young girl called out, "Hey, Tenno. Got any stories to tell?" The steady sound of footsteps on gravel as the Warframe walked past were Nakak's only response, "Tenno?"

**-BZZZ-**

A gruff boy's voice echoed, "Not half bad, glinty! You an alright mucker after all!"

**-BZZZ-**

A concerned female voice, Eudico's, directly inquired, "Hey Cephalon… Is Sparky alright? He's been silent lately, not even sparing the Ventkids a passing hello anymore. Did something happen?"

**-BZZZ- **

Cephalon Maintenance: Task Incomplete

The static receded into the background as the Cephalon began stabilizing himself. It was during the final stages that the digitized being… hesitated.

He ruminated on the lengthy discussion he and the Operator had some hours before, specifically upon the discussion with the groups of 'Eden' and eventually of 'QUILL'. Upon learning of how a member of Eden had forced him to work for them as a means of 'making up' for accidentally killing a number of their own during the _Grande Divisor_ mission, the Cephalon held similar contempt as his Tenno towards the group. With how that plant controlling Adept kept up with the Operator along with levelling the entire building complex, Ordis bet that if not for his Operator's presence and that Adept's probable malice towards Ivara's Technocyte composition, that entire team of Eden aligned Adepts would've been slaughtered.

Still, though the rejection of Eden's offer was, on some level, justified, his Operator's later rejection of seeking out and joining with the less extreme group, 'QUILL', had not.

Standing for **Q**uorum for **U**nrestricted Information, **L**aw, and **L**iberty, it is an armed resistance group that stands for Adept rights. Unlike the extremist Eden, whose final goals lie in an Adept ethnostate and the extinction of regular humans, QUILL's objectives lie in the exposing of the horrific experiments performed on Adepts across the globe. Digging into the 'Deep Web' where information wasn't so easily censored and redacted as on the surface, Ordis had found much of these experiments were done by Sumeragi; the experiments being a major contributor to their rapid advancement in technology and domination of the market and Japanese government. Cases such as Pamela beneath the _Grande Divisor _seemed to be commonplace. The Cephalon internally shuddered, thinking of a scenario in which his Operator hadn't woken up in the Arctic base and slaughtered all personnel there.

Digressing, from what his Operator reported, he had already encountered a field operative of theirs: a teen just as, if not younger, than the Operator. Foolish in terms of ensuring no one in Japan knew of the Operator's presence, the Operator had spared the boy. Though he had interfered with the QUILL operatives' mission in retrieving the package containing a Kuva sample, there was still a window for him to collaborate and for both to mutually benefit. "_A window he would've immediately taken before the Lotus left…" _

**-BZZZ-**

A memory flashed. One Ordis couldn't help but begin cycling his systems to view again. It was where the Cephalon believed- _knew- _much of the Operator's distrust and disdain of others not Tenno came from. That tipping point where the Operator lost something important. A burning light within that drove him towards both compassionate and foolhardy action. The day when that light was eclipsed by an indifferent darkness.

The Cephalon's visual feed shifted to the Tenno's bare, pristine room as he thought back to a time where the Operator held within himself a self righteous fervor. Carelessly throwing himself at greed driven Corpus and idiotic, wrathful Grineer. All the while actively making friends with the Ostrons and Solaris alike. Hints of that old self still remained, what he reported of sparing that QUILL Operative and Sumeragi Adept were true. Alongside that, the Cephalon discerning perhaps thinly veiled regret when his Operator mentioned the number of personnel and soldiers killed in the mission forced upon him by Eden.

Static filled Ordis's vision as memories of that day superimposed themselves over the visual feed. Bare white walls reverted to those covered in the patterns of the Arbiters of Hexis. Where neatly organized shelves of untouched floofs, articullas, and other miscellaneous objects scattered and showed evidence of occasional fiddling. Where next to the Aquarium vignette hosting Syanthids, Charamotes, and Tromyzons were a collection of Syndicate Medallions. And upon the empty holographic display reverted to the resolute form of Volt, kitted with an Arrester Helmet, Vaykor Hek, Mara Detron, and Nikana.

Ordis's visual feed focused on the dark oceans beyond the room's large window as the Cephalon replayed the mission log.

* * *

"Operator, are you sure you should be performing missions. It has only been a week since the Lotus left-"

"I'm alright, Ordis. Just let me do this. I… I need to take my mind off of her."

"...As you say, Operator"

* * *

Eight sets of lights navigated the darkness, the footsteps of four pairs of feet near silent against the metal panels they walked upon.

After dodging a number of metal pillars, the sets of lights hovered over a vent. Dimly lit by both the lights of others and the light shining through the gaps of said vent, a humanoid sporting two horns, kicked the vent in.

Unceremoniously, the two horned figure- the Warframe designated 'Volt'- dropped down within a Corpus locker room. His Sentinel, Dethcube Prime, scanned the surroundings as the Warframe's 3 compatriots dropped down from the ceiling.

Two females, Mirage and Zephyr, and the bulky form of Rhino, landed with a resounding thud. Each scanned all of the doors coming into the room, Mirage already prancing into a side storage room, the glinting blade of Galatine slicing into the armored forms of the Corpus Crewman inside.

Lotus's voice crackled through the Tenno private channel, "This is a rescue mission. We need to find and liberate the hostage before any harm comes to them."

Volt's shoulders visibly slumped before straightening as he turned to his Cell. A male teen's voice spoke to his fellow Tenno, "You heard the Lotus, let's go."

A chorus of "on it" and "right" were the response to their de facto squad leader as they moved through the Corpus ship.

Volt took stock of cramped, pristine walls of the Corpus ship that would soon be marred by combat. There were rumours of a Nef Anyo and other members of the Corpus board leading a mass retrofitting of all Corpus ships. Whatever that entailed would have to wait as the seasoned Tenno lead the three, recently awoken, Tenno in this mission.

* * *

Heads turned as a door shuttered open. Flux Rifles were pointed as the group of intruders stormed through the group of Corpus meandering in the ship halls. None reacted fast enough to trigger any alarms as high speed winds tore straight through mechanical and organic bodies. Lightning rapidly crawled over countless surfaces, electrocuting any too close. Formations were crushed as the impervious, hulking body of Rhino charged through. The very security systems were turned against the Corpus as turrets activated and targeted crewmen, the cameras remotely hacked by the trickery of Mirage. Scores lay dead, the Tenno fanning out and slaughtering all in their path.

Unknown to the squad, an Operative watched from the shadows, a belt of spheres highlighted from the small bits of light bouncing off his metal helm. Their gaze honed in on Mirage, who sported an emblem of a bloody feather upon the curve of her bosom.

* * *

The voices of preteens conversed back and forth as the carnage of their actions unfolded. The voice of a female- Zephyr's Operator- spoke through the Tenno cell's private channel, "Hey Mirage, you're part of Red Veil and Steel Meridian, right?"

A male voice, the voice of Mirage's Operator responded, "Yep. Something wrong with that?" The illusionist Warframe eyed the faint mark of the Arbiters of Hexis on Zephyr's hip.

"Nope," denied Zephyr, "I was just wondering if we can trade. Cephalon Suda and Arbiters simply lack this Frame's Augment mods. Also some Archwing weapon parts."

Mirage perked up, "Oh, sure. Volt already traded me Mirage's Augment Mods but I haven't invested in Archwing weapons. I'll meet you at Maroo's after the mission."

"Will do."

"Enough with the chit chat" cut Volt's Operator's voice, "we're here".

Before the squad was a large door, two panels at each end that required the simultaneous hacking for authorization into the ship's prison complex.

Both Rhino and Volt signalled Mirage and Zephyr before opening the door. Immediately, Mirage burst into action, orbs of light detonating and blinding a pair of prison wardens that had the misfortune of standing too close to the door.

Concentrated winds tore off security cameras up above as Volt sped ahead, lightning fast strikes with his _Nikana Prime _bisecting the remaining two Wardens not in the immediate range of his comrades.

Rhino proceeded beneath the small prison complex, using a vent leading to the main hallway of the prisons to dodge hacking the main doors open. The lone patrolling Corpus Crewman was immediately pulverized and reduced to a pile of broken metal and flesh.

A quick slip of a Parazon into each prison door eventually led to the prisoner being freed and simultaneously, the other doors leading to the prison complex unlocking.

Volt's two horned helm took a passing glance at the hostage, the height and proportions of the hostage's body denoting one who hadn't quite reached the cusp of adulthood. "_Just a kid…" _Volt took note of the state of the hostage's form fitting garb, scorch marks visible "_torture, too?"_ It was here that the seasoned Tenno reached out, a hand on the hostage's shoulder.

Realizing where Volt was looking, the hostage spoke, "The Corpus weren't merciful to me. I'm afraid the damage from their torture sessions broke something in my suit; the shield is a bit faulty."

Unheard from the hostage, Volt spoke to his compatriots, "Considering the state of his shields, I recommend that you all keep a closer formation around him. Take this as training for when you perform Sorties, alright?" The younger Tenno nodded.

While the young hostage thanked the Tenno squad profusely, Volt wordlessly funnelled electricity through his limbs which naturally flowed into his squad mates. Getting the hint, the other three Warframes followed after Volt, slowing down a little to make sure the rescued hostage kept pace.

Due to his Warframe's innate high speeds, Volt naturally took point as he assisted in carving a path straight through the Corpus guards who only held a modicum of an idea on what had transpired within the prison complex. Though they assumed much more of a defensive posture, their lines were ill suited for dealing with a full squad of Tenno.

The gap between the de facto leader of the Tenno squad and his cell mates however, grew more and more. It was while Volt found himself a handful of rooms away, within a few meters from extraction, did Mirage's would-be assassin strike.

* * *

A beam from Volt's Dethcube Sentinel vaporizing a still recovering Corpus technician signaled the end of a Corpus platoon. Surrounded by smoking corpses and fried electronics, Volt took stock of his surroundings, an eye trained on the four docking stations. Approaching and hacking a nearby console, the four docking doors shuttered open, the air escaping into the void of space causing Volt's waist cloth to flutter.

Peering out into the inky black void, the Tenno spotted four Landing Crafts seemingly materializing out of nowhere, docking with the four stations. Seeing as how the extraction point had been secured, Volt turned his attention to his map.

A curious flicker was noticed, leading to the discovery that he couldn't track the location of his squadmates. Worry colored the Warframe's actions as the Operator within tapped into the Tenno channel.

Loud static was all the Tenno met as he retraced the path he took from the prison complex room to extraction. It was while he was doing so that alarms blared, an orange light coming from wall computer consoles; a lockdown across this slice of the ship.

* * *

It was while the trio of Tenno were running through a longer hallway with half of its expanse devoted to storage leading into a hangar bay, did the assassin strike.

Rhino and Zephyr charged on ahead, their abilities giving them more leeway in reckless charges, though worry for their own Warframe's well-being were at the back of their heads as they cleaned up the severely injured survivors of Volt's earlier blitz attacks. Blast marks from his Acceltra were notably prominent when Rhino took a gander at a scorched storage room full of broken machinery and corpses.

Mirage followed behind, acting as rearguard and personal escort to the hostage when, as the duo were reaching the door to the hangar, multiple shots rang out, nails piercing the windows adjacent to Mirage.

The effect was immediate as breathable air was sucked into the vacuum of space. The worrying flicker of the hostage's shields had Mirage push the hostage into a corner of the room as the assassin revealed themselves. Their form, garbed in a form fitting dark grey and white suit topped off with a silver helm that emitted blue lights, spelled out the assassin as an Arbiters of Hexis field operative.

"Your lack of honor has brought this upon you" intoned the Operative.

A belt of orbs was thrown right at the Mirage, who immediately summoned the large form of a Galatine greatsword which sliced into the offending projectile. The orbs broke off, the balls rolling before flashing with a bright light.

When the light died down, the Mirage found herself surrounded by a squad of Corrupted Lancers 15 strong. The sapping and freezing auras of the group assaulted Mirage as she conjured an impromptu lightshow, a cover as her single form became five, the four images of her form synchronizing with her and pulling out twin micro missile launchers- the Akarius.

* * *

Rhino and Zephyr turned immediately, the locked down door almost mocking the two as they turned towards the larger hangar bay they found themselves in. The alarms immediately drew the attention of Corpus crewman and engineers who rushed towards the site of decompression. First responders in the form of Moas were dispensed nearby, the proxies instantly registering the duo of Warframes as threats and heightened the alarm.

Rhino brandished his pair of Ankyros gauntlets while Zephyr brought her Tiberon to bear. Both eyed the console a few meters away but considering the increasing number of Corpus entering the hangar bay, their priorities lay in clearing out the growing tide before the number of proxies proved too troublesome.

* * *

A salvo of mini rockets met the face of an unfortunate Specter as Mirage and her doubles leapt away from the stream of yellow blaster fire. The Tenno operating the lithe Warframe internally cringed as the sound of snapping and crunching reached their ears. The proximity of the Spectres causing ice to build up on the Warframe's joints, said ice breaking and rapidly regenerating, slowing down the Warframe as the Tenno performed evasive maneuvers.

The illusionist had struck a tad too late, a number of the deployed Spectres already deploying a protective ice bubble around themselves. This having both the effect of making the already narrow room more cramped. Making sure that the hostage was safely hiding outside of the line of fire, the Warframe backflipped down a flight of stairs and into the more open miniature cargo bay just as the 4 illusionary versions of her flickered out of existence.

Ducking behind a support beam holding up a storage container full of lockers, Mirage swapped weapons as the Spectres advanced. With a flourish of her wrist, balls of light materialized all around her. The approaching Spectres were instantly blinded and knocked back as her Explosive Legerdemain enhanced Sleight of Hand detonated. The added effect of the defensive systems nearby being hacked diverted the hitsquad's attention as they were suddenly accosted by ceiling mounted turrets.

Taking advantage, the fragile conjurer Warframe stepped out with her Supra Vandal and fired into the partially blinded and partially distracted group of Spectres. Those not sheltered by the protective barrier of the Arctic Eximus of the group were cut down. The barriers protecting the remaining Spectres became pockmarked with holes resulting in them coming down.

Restoring her Hall of Mirrors, Mirage flipped over the surviving group, Galatine manifested in her grasp. Slamming on the ground and knocking all of the Spectres flat on their backs, the Warframe came slashing in a whirlwind of blows.

First on the Warframe's target list were the Arctic Eximus units. The heavy blade broke through their tough carapace and, much to the Tenno's relief, the ice building up in Mirage's joints faded. Next came the Leech Eximus who, due to close proximity, had almost drained the Mirage's energy pool, found themselves gutted like fish. Reinvigorated, Mirage continued her slaughter, capping it off with a flash of Sleight of Hand and a boot to a Specter's face.

As the piercing end of Galatine found its mark, a lone Spectre missing an arm rose among the small pile of corpses. Flame built up in its remaining hand with the Warframe unable to stop the Arson Eximus from unleashing a wave of fire.

Knocked back like a ragdoll, the Warframe recovered just enough midair to take aim with her Akarius and finished off the wounded unit as its scorched armor and body splattered against the locked blast door behind it.

Suddenly the Warframe turned and looked around as the broken windows were finally shut by metal shutters. The lockdown had finally lifted.

"Tenno, lookout!" Turning, the Mirage was shocked as the hostage tackled the Warframe. Due to his small size up against the humanoid weapons platform, the tackle only pushed the Warframe to stumble. The Operator behind the Warframe widened his eyes as a nailbolt found its way into the hostage's skull.

Mirage identified the source to be the Hexis Operative, with his smoking Akbolto pistol.

* * *

After disassembling some wounded Corpus on his way to the designated point on the restored map, the Volt found his squad.

Mirage was cradling the still form of the hostage, his head obscured from the Warframe of electricity's sight. Volt's gaze turned towards the back of Rhino who held firmly in his grasp the unconscious form of an Arbiters of Hexis Operative.

Zephyr turned, the avian Warframe's Operator speaking, "The hostage is dead. His skull got completely pulverized by this Operative's Akbolto."

With that, the still fresh wound of betrayal bled once more as the passionate Sun was eclipsed by the indifferent Moon.

* * *

The sound of a holographic display closing was all the warning the Ship Cephalon received as his raven haired Operator suddenly spoke, "I'm done with the Syndicates"

"W-what?"

"Specifically the ones in the Relays. Adjust the settings accordingly on acceptable missions, Ordis."

"Operator, t-this is so sudden why-"

The Operator cut his faithful Cephalon off, "Do they really take me for a fool, Ordis?"

"Pardon?"

"The Arbiters of Hexis worship the Tenno as immortal demigods, yet they want complete dominance over what we can or can't do; sending entire hit squads to keep their 'idols' in line, treating the Tenno like tools." There was a disconcerting amount of calm as the Operator spoke, almost like he was talking of the weather on Fortuna and Cetus. The Cephalon maintained his silence as the Operator continued on his tangent.

Hayden turned his gaze at the nearby Tenno Relay, "They state that they only seek to hone the Tenno so that they may be unshackled, yet take actions that would limit a Tenno's agency. They preach one thing, and take actions that would suggest a more, ugly truth. All the while comfortably sitting around in the Relays, safe in their confidence of the Tenno protecting them." He turned his gaze back to the inside of his Orbiter, addressing his ship Cephalon, "What does that sound like, Ordis?"

Caught off guard, the Cephalon paused before replying, "... The Orokin...?

"Exactly, and they make no effort to hide that fact as they style themselves after those gilded bastards. One day, they might just flat out bring back the Orokin Empire, just under a different name and slightly different structure." The Operator walked down the ramp as he went deeper into the Orbiter. Ordis recognized the pacing habit the Operator had, stemming from him thinking. Ordis wordlessly used the Orbiter's internal sensors to follow his Tenno.

"Operator, they wouldn't do that"

The door to the Tenno's personal quarters opened as the Operator replied, "You don't know that. You don't know if in the distant future they'll grow fat and complacent just like the Orokin once did. Like the Corpus and the Grineer."

There was a pause between the Operator and the Cephalon. The Operator turned, taking a hold of a displayed Syndicate medallion. An eye looked at the holographic display of Volt. Specifically focused at the weapon that was holstered on his waist- the Mara Detron.

The Cephalon broke the silence, "Operator, that still doesn't mean you should break off from every single Syndicate, they're still-"

Grey eyes turned to the display of a leaf medallion, "New Loka has already demonstrated that a Syndicate leader's words mean little in what the organization will, and continues to do. It made little difference after The Silver Grove how they interacted with Steel Meridian and Suda. They are as pigheaded as the Grineer they oh so despise."

His gaze turned to a blood red feather, "Red Veil is too caught up in their dogma and extremism, desiring to purge every little thing they don't like, just like New Loka. And like New Loka, forgetting the intrinsic value of history; far too caught up in the now rather than the future. Their method of a quick, violent cleansing will never amount to long term change. One need only look at the state of affairs between Grineer and Corpus now, how everyone is still wallowing in the shadows and ashes of the Empire, incapable of moving forward without decimating the entire Sol System fighting each other with rediscovered, refurbished weapons from the Orokin Empire."

Still clutching the medallion in his hand, the Operator sat down, "Then there's Perrin Sequence and Steel Meridian. Both of them seem to be the most sane of the Syndicates hosted on the Relays because of their mostly defensive nature. Still, they hate each other. Both too caught up in their narrow view of the world and so focused on that animosity that characterizes both of the larger factions they broke off and rebelled against.

The Tenno deflated, "Cephalon Suda is just complacent and indifferent. All she and her followers are concerned with is the collection and preservation of information and nothing more. With such a nature, they wouldn't see an incoming catastrophe until it was too late as demonstrated by Hunhow."

"But Operator, you can help them change-"

Hayden chucked the medallion in his hand. The grey triangular object separating from the miniature magnetic field of its pedestal on contact with the smooth wall, "And what _difference _would that make? The Grineer and Corpus started as resistance movements so similar to these Syndicates and look where they are now. If both Grineer and Corpus were to disappear suddenly, the entire System would still be at war with the sole difference being the number of primary factions involved."

The Cephalon argued, "They didn't have the Tenno to guide them. Operator, you and the other Tenno can guide the System to be better."

Said Operator clicked his tongue, "I doubt it. Aside from how some older Tenno are almost as greedy as some Corpus executives and conduct themselves purely as mercenaries, people die, people forget. Ideals become distorted, societies rise and crumble. What's the point of raising something up, when all that'll happen in the end is a fall? Besides that I..."

The Operator paused, and looked forlornly past the aquarium behind him and at the Lotus's helmet, "And aside from that, I despise being worshipped like this. Despite having all of this power at my disposal, I still failed where it matters the most." There was a pain in the Operator's eyes as he began to recall something, "And this power, so unstable, so volatile... and I- What I did…"

The Operator's words died off and before Ordis could speak his piece, a sense of deja vu came over the Cephalon, keeping him from pressing further.

With both occupants of the Orbiter unwilling to continue conversation, a lasting silence dominated the vessel as the black haired youth packed away the Syndicate memorabilia into a hidden compartment. The Tenno walked over to the consoles in his quarters. First the holographic display of Volt melted away into static then nothing. Soon after, the patterned walls all around faded into a sterile white. With that done, the Operator moved to the door.

There was a firmness to the Operator's voice as he stopped at the doorway, "From now on Ordis, my only concerns are with the other Tenno and them alone. Any missions that come to me, should only be concerned with the wellbeing of other Tenno."

* * *

Ordis turned away from the memory, allowing it to recede as the process of self maintenance began.

In spite of the words the Operator spoke of his sole devotion to the other Tenno, Ordis found his Tenno's eyes to be hollow. There was little drive behind it. Little passion. No heart behind that cause. That hollowness that didn't lift after the Pyrus Project. A mask of indifference and a lack of purpose.

That same look was something Ordis now recognized and knew well, for those were the eyes of a creature who stood atop a pile of bones. A creature who was dead inside, only going through the motions of living, killing, resting, and killing again. That was the life of a hollow man who, in his final days, brought back to his senses after having his body ravaged by disease, despaired as he looked in the reflection of his blades, realizing how far he had forgotten himself. Forgotten why he fought. Forgotten the brotherhood he shared with his fellow mercenaries. All lost to monotonous bloodshed. At that point, with body and mind worn down so… what other path to take than death?

If the Operator came back to an Origin System ravaged by the Sentients, his fellow Tenno that he was devoting himself as a collective to be dead and gone… Would he stand like the Beast of Bones did that day, defiantly charging into a lost battle, seeking death? The thought terrified the Cephalon.

And so the Cephalon prayed. Prayed that those embers that yet still lingered in the Operator to burn in a blaze once more. To be able to place trust in others. To not shutter himself away and devote himself to a cause he could truly place his heart behind. One that would lead somewhere other than the cold damnation of hollowness and death.

Ordis hoped.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Equipment Loadouts-**

**Mirage: ****Supra Vandal, ****Akarius, ****Galatine, Unknown Sentinel**

**Rhino: ****Ogris, ****Akstiletto, ****Ankyros, Unknown Sentinel**

**Zephyr: ****Tiberon, ****Atomos, ****Kronen, Unknown Sentinel**

**Volt: ****Acceltra, ****Mara Detron, ****Nikana Prime, Dethcube Prime**

**This chapter's contents take place after Apostasy Prologue and before The Sacrifice **

**So I've made some renovations to two previous chapters (3 and 5). Chapter 3 I pretty much completely changed the cause of his appearance in the world of Gunvolt so as to tie the story together more. Chapter 5 I added two scenes to do more show and less tell. **

**Regarding the Operator's characterization, there will be more chapters similar to this wherein a bit of the Operator's backstory is explored so as to give more context to his actions and how he develops over the course of this story.**

** About that future chapter I have written up and stored away, it's more of a 'mission log' chapter about a Warframe story mission. The intent of the Operator in this story is to be built as closely as possible to what is shown in the character Operator in Warframe. The Operator being a total brat and his cringe worthy ingame mission lines are canon to this character though his backstory will extend to what is beyond what is in Warframe. **

**To clarify, the Operator is currently in Full Moon Alignment and was previously Full Sun. How I see alignments being "As cold and indifferent as the Moon" and "As passionate and volatile as the Sun" **

**Leave feedback and corrections in reviews and have a good day. **


End file.
